ABSTRACT
The reason why, on December 16, Mr. Austen Chamberlain delivered a Tariff Reform speech at Carlisle in one sense, and why, on the same date, Mr. Bonar Law delivered a Tariff Reform speech in another sense at Ashton-under-Lyne, was that the latter, without consulting the former, had suddenly determined to bow to a rising storm, stronger even than the Caucus. It blew from the country. During 1912, as has been seen already, Tariff Reformers were becoming convinced that the Government would fall at any time and that the hour of Tariff Reform had come. They therefore abandoned the Referendum in November, so that, as soon as they were in office, they might carry the food taxes unhindered by that pledge. Adhering to this more charitable hypothesis, people must conclude that, "in the kind of panic" which they now began to feel, they realised reluctantly that country was not friendly to their policy, and that therefore they bent before the blast.
