ABSTRACT
It was some little time before the Tariff Reformers of the rank and file, who had applauded so lustily at the Albert Hall, began to awake to realities, to repent them of the tornado of their own cheering, and to perceive that their leader had once more endeavoured to banish their pet policy to a dim and distant prison-house. It is true that one of their leading organs, just before the "betrayal", had denounced the Referendum policy as "a dodge to sweep Lancashire and win the election", and had declared that "if Tariff Reform cannot be carried into law without a Referendum, then no other large proposal ever can be, representative government is finished, and, incidentally, the Unionist party breaks into fragments". At Darlington, on December 2, referring to Mr. Asquith's challenge to Mr. Balfour to submit Tariff Reform to the people, he said that he considered frankly that that was an unreasonable challenge.
