The Press. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1903. THE CABINET CRISIS IN ENGLAND.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11691, 18 September 1903, Page 4

The Press. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1903. THE CABINET CRISIS IN ENGLAND.

Judging by his pamphlet on preferential trads, referred to in our cable messages, Mr. Balfour is engaged in the difficult, if not altogether impossible, task of devising a policy which shall satisfy Mr. Chamberlain, and at the same time not drive the Duke of Devonshire and Mr. Ritchie out of the Cabinet. He wants to preserve the " true spirit of free trade," and at the same time adopt a policy of protection. This looks very much like an attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable, and seems foredoomed to failure. It will be observed that he still refrains from committing himself to any specific proposals. If, as seems likely, he intends to abandon the food-tax as well as taxes on raw materials, then there is an end to the idea of preference to the colonies. What is left is some vague policy of threatening reprisals against protectionist foreign countries, with a view to securing tariff concession from the latter, and strong as is the anti-Ger-man feeling in England we doubt if this . policy affords a rallying cry sufficient to win over any of the constituencies at present opposed to the Government on account of their War Office administration and the Education Act. It. seems to he forgotten that th& Conservatives, in 1885, tried to capture the constituencies with a fair trade programme almost identical with that propounded by Mr. Chamberlain on his return

from South Africa. Tho most curious part of tho affair is that on that occasion it was stoutly opposed by Mr. Chamberlain, being, in fact, brought down with the express intention to corner his own Radical programme. The Fair Trade cry proved a complete failure in 1885. The colonial preferences and the food taxes were, on that occasion, abandoned before the campaign began, and the candidates who held out for retaliation or protection on manufactured goods made little headway. It is not strange that Mr. Chamberlain should hold different views now from those he promulgated in 1885, but it is strange that he should either have forgotten the coolness with which the Fair Trade programme was received on that occasion, or that he should imagine that what was so unpopular then would be hailed with enthusiasm now. As to Mr. Balfour, there is no doubt he is in a most difficult position. If the Duke of Devonshire resigns, it is stated by an English authority that ho will take eight seceders with him, and there will be an end of the Cabinet. What Mr. Balfour is apparently trying to do is to gain time, hoping for something to happen to relieve the tension of the present situation. Obviously it is impossible for him to dance on the point of a needle for an indefinite time, and there arenot a few who think that the split will take place after all, and that the Duke of Devonshire will become the dominant partner in a new combination.