ABSTRACT
The extreme Tariff Reformer, or Confederate, if too pessimistic about his country, yet sometimes corrects that deficiency by being too optimistic about himself. Accordingly, a bumper meeting at the Albert Hall was arranged for mid-November to celebrate the coming event. At this meeting, Lord Lansdowne, after stating that there was "a growing suspicion that the Government is a vast and organised conspiracy", made a most important announcement. For some time past the policy of the party had been that Tariff Reform should not be carried through Parliament until first submitted to a Referendum, or vote of the people. A further important announcement was made by Mr. Austen Chamberlain at Glasgow a month later, in mid-December. He furnished precise facts and figures, almost in the spirit of a Chancellor of the Exchequer already introducing a Budget. Turning from wheat to other foodstuffs, he announced "on other foodstuffs a duty not exceeding 5 per cent ad valorem on the foreign supply".
