A GATHERING OF UNIONISTS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2091, 20 August 1901, Page 3

A GATHERING OF UNIONISTS.

. LONDON, August 12. At Blenheim on Saturday the Duke and Duchess of -Marlborough entertained 3,000 representative Unionists at luncheon. Mr Balfour referred to the anti-patriotic Opposition, the tactics of- the Irish party, and the indissoluble alliance of both wings of Unionists. • '•' Mr Chamberlain, in a characteristic speech, declared that the Liberal Imeprialists wouldnever extricate the remnant of the' Liberal party from the. pro-Boer and Little Engender marsh. Lord Rosebery had lately recommended '■■ the.lmperial. Liberal.Association to call themselves Liberal Imperialists, but* they put the. word "Imperialists',' in brackets, : implying that. Imperialism was merely a political parenthesis. The. Unionists would have ■ nothing-to do with. Imperialism in brackets.—(Cheers.) After declaring that the behaviour of the Nationalists during the past session had rendered a reduction of the present over-representation of Ireland an urgent matter, Mr Chamberlain eulogised the steadfastness of the democracy in the defence of the whole Empire, and said : " When Sir H. C. Bannerman asks for peace at any price Ave will answer as Lincoln answered the pessimist majority of Copperheads in the North. And history will justify us as it has justified Lincoln." Mr' Balfour, in the course of a second speech at the Blenheim Palace luncheon, testified to the immeasurable services Mr Chamberlain had rendered to the cause of Imperial unity during his occupancy of what was now perhaps the greatest administrative office under the Crown.