eck (August 4), at Luton (October 5), and at Limehouse
(December 15), but he had nothing substantial to add to his case, and
the party situation continued in all its embarrassments. Mr Balfour's
introduction of his promise (at Edinburgh on October 3) to convene an
imperial conference after the general election if the Unionists came
back to power, in order to discuss a scheme for fiscal union,
represented an academic rather than a practical advance, since the
by-elections showed that the Unionists were certain to be defeated. The
one important new development concerned the Liberal-Unionist
organization. In January some correspondence was published between Mr
Chamberlain and the duke of Devonshire, dating from the previous
October, as to difficulties arising from the central Liberal-Unionist
organization subsidizing local associations which had adopted the
programme of tariff reform. The duke objected to this departure from
neutrality, and suggested that it was becoming "impossible with any
advantage to maintain under existing circumstances the existence of the
Liberal-Unionist organization." Mr Chamberlain retorted that this was a
matter for a general meeting of delegates to decide; if the duke was
outvoted he might resign his presidency; for his own part he was
prepared to allow the local associations to be subsidized impartially,
so long as they supported the government, but he was not prepared for
the violent disruption, which the duke apparently contemplated, of an
association so necessary to the success of the Unionist cause. The duke
was in a difficult position as president of the organization, since most
of the local associations supported Mr Chamberlain, and he replied that
the differences between them were vital, and he would not be responsible
for dividing the association into sections, but would rather resign. Mr
Chamberlain then called a general meeting on his own responsibility in
February, when a new constitution was proposed; and in May, at the
annual meeting of the Liberal-Unionist council, the free-food Unionists,
being in a minority, retired, and the association was reorganized under
Mr Chamberlain's auspices, Lord Lansdowne and Lord Selborne (both of
them cabinet ministers) becoming vice-presidents. On July 14th the
reconstituted Liberal-Unionist organization held a great demonstration
in the Albert Hall, and Mr Chamberlain's success in ousting the duke of
Devonshire and the other free-trade members of t