oposing to adjust the taxation so as to improve the
position of the working-classes and to stimulate employment. The free-trade
Unionists, with the duke of Devonshire, Lord Goschen, Lord James and Lord
Hugh Cecil, as their chief representatives, started a Free Food league in
opposition to Mr Chamberlain's Tariff Reform league; and at a great meeting
at Queen's Hall, London, on the 24th of November their attitude was made
plain. They rejected Mr Chamberlain's food-taxes, discredited his
statistics, and, while admitting the theoretical orthodoxy of retaliation,
criticized Mr Balfour's attitude and repudiated his assumption that
retaliation would be desirable. Finally in December came the appointment of
Mr Chamberlain's Tariff Commission. There was no doubt about the obstinacy
and persistency of both sections, and both were fighting, not only to
persuade the public, but for the capture of the party and of its prime
minister. Both sides were inclined to claim him; neither could do so
without qualification. His dialectical dexterity in evading the necessity
of expressing his fiscal opinions further than he had already done became a
daily subject for contemptuous criticism in the Liberal press; but he
insisted that in any case no definite action could be taken till the next
parliament; and while he declined to go the "whole hog"--as the phrase
went--with Mr Chamberlain, he did nothing to discourage Mr Chamberlain's
campaign. Whether he would eventually follow in the same direction, or
would come back to the straiter free-trade side, continued to be the
political conundrum for month after month. Minor changes were made in the
ministry in 1903, Mr Brodrick going to the India office and Mr
Arnold-Forster becoming minister for war, but Mr Balfour's personal
influence remained potent, the government held together, and in 1904 the
Licensing Bill was successfully carried. Though a few Unionists transferred
their allegiance, notably Mr. Winston Churchill, and by-elections went
badly, Mr Balfour still commanded a considerable though a dwindling
majority, and the various contrivances of the opposition for combining all
free-traders against the government were obstructed by the fact that
anything tantamount to a vote of censure would not be supported by the
"wobblers" in the ministerial party, while the government could always
manage to draft some "safe" amendment acceptable to most of them. This was
notably shown in the debate on Mr Black