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Some people change their party to avoid changing their mind. – ( Renewed laughter. ) There have been all sorts of changes in English politics, but I think that Mr Chamberlain’s change is much the most remarkable of any that history records. – ( Hear, hear. ) When you think that the man who broke up or was breaking up the Liberal Government of 1885 by being more Radical than Mr Gladstone, and was driving the Duke of Devonshire out of the Liberal party and Liberal Government in 1885, is the man who is now breaking up the Conservative Government in 1904 by being more Tory and more reactionary than any Conservative in that government, I think you will agree with me that it is a world’s record – ( laughter and cheers ), – that it is less like an ordinary political manoeuvre than like one of those acrobatic feats which are so popular in circuses and hippodromes. There is one particular feat of which I am forcibly reminded tonight – the novel and exciting spectacle of ‘looping the loop’. – ( Laughter. ) It is a very dangerous and a very difficult performance. I don’t know whether you have ever seen it. Sometimes it succeeds and sometimes it fails. When it succeeds great applause is accorded to the performer. When it fails he is usually carried away on a shutter. – ( Laughter. ) But whether it succeeds or whether it fails the performance always commands the attention and the interest of the audience. . . .
    I hope in the autumn to lay before the electors a statement upon these subjects at greater length. When the election comes, it is on these points that I will ask for your support, and I will put on my bills –
    Vote for Churchill, Cheap Food, Peace, Retrenchment, and Reform.
    The Protectionists have failed to prove that this country is not prosperous; they have failed to prove that they have a remedy which will make us prosperous; and they have failed to prove that their remedy can be effectively applied. As the world goes, we are undoubtedly a prosperous nation, and, man for man, the most prosperous nation. But even if we were not prosperous, Protection would only accelerate our decline and exacerbate our misfortunes. Is it a strange thing that there has been some disorganisation of our commerce after the close of a great and costly war? Mr Chamberlain told a Birmingham audience two years ago that England was rich enough to fight just such another war. Ah! the Birmingham barrel – organ is playing a different tune today – ( Laughter. ) England is now bleeding to death, and we are told that the colonies will leave us unless Canadian loyalty is purchased at 25. a quarter and Australian allegiance at a penny a pound, – ( Laughter. )
    Mr Chamberlain’s motives no doubt are pure enough, but what about some of those who were supporting him – those rich landlords and wealthy manufacturers who jostled one another on his platforms? Was it all for the unity of the Empire; was it all for the good of the Empire? – ( Laughter. ) I will show by quotations that the working men of Spain, France, and Germany are more discontented than the English working men, and that a Free Trade movement is in progress both in Germany and America. I do not look upon foreign peoples as if they are our enemies. – ( Loud cheers. ) The King has gone from one European capital to another endeavouring to spread goodwill among the nations. What is the good of that if we have another lot of people with a distinguished man at their head going about appealing to every narrow, bigoted, insular prejudice, representing every foreigner as an enemy, spreading ill-will and dissension among the nations of the earth? – ( Cheers. ) The union of the Anglo-Saxon race is a great ideal, and if ever it is to be achieved it will be by increasing and not diminishing the friendly intercourse of trade between this country and the United States. Against such wanton folly as a tariff war with the United States, Free-traders appeal with confidence to