men, cannot always escape them, and may sometimes be forced to
count them among his colleagues. Lord Rosebery's Administration was
sterilized partly by his own unfamiliarity with Liberal sentiment,
and partly by the frowardness of his colleagues. Mr. Balfour knew
all about Conservative sentiment, so far as it is concerned with
order, property, and religion; but he did not realize the economic
heresy which always lurks in the secret heart of Toryism; and it
was his misfortune to have as his most important colleague a "bold,
reckless man" who realized that heresy, and was resolved to work
it for his own ends. From the day when Mr. Chamberlain launched
his scheme, or dream, of Tariff Reform, Mr. Balfour's authority
steadily declined. Endless ingenuity in dialectic, nimble exchanges
of posture, candid disquisition for the benefit of the well-informed,
impressive phrase-making for the bewilderment of the ignorant--these
and a dozen other arts were tried in vain. People began to laugh
at the Tory leader, and likened him to Issachar crouching down
between two burdens, or to that moralist who said that he always
sought "the narrow path which lies between right and wrong." His
colleagues fell away from him, and he was unduly ruffled by their
secession. "It is time," exclaimed the Liberal leader, "to have
done with this fooling"; and though he was blamed by the Balfourites
for his abruptness of speech, the country adopted his opinion.
Gradually it seemed to dawn on Mr. Balfour that his position was
no longer tenable. He slipped out of office as quietly as he had
slipped into it; and the Liberal party entered on its ten years'
reign.