This did not tend to make him popular, but in spite of his
unpopularity, in his speeches against national extravagancies he
made so good a fight that he forced the Government, unwillingly,
to appoint a committee to investigate the need of economy. For a
beginner this was a distinct triumph.

With Lord Hugh Cecil, Lord Percy, Ian Malcolm, and other clever
young men, he formed inside the Conservative Party a little group
that in its obstructive and independent methods was not unlike the
Fourth Party of his father. From its leader and its filibustering,
guerilla-like tactics the men who composed it were nicknamed the
"Hughligans." The Hughligans were the most active critics of the
Ministry and of all in their own party, and as members of the Free
Food League they bitterly attacked the fiscal proposals of Mr.
Chamberlain. When Balfour made Chamberlain's fight for fair
trade, or for what virtually was protection, a measure of the
Conservatives, the lines of party began to break, and men were no
longer Conservatives or Liberals, but Protectionists or Free
Traders.

Against this Churchill daily protested, against Chamberlain,
against his plan, against that plan being adopted by the Tory Party.
By tradition, by inheritance, by instinct, Churchill was a Tory.

"I am a Tory," he said, "and I have as much right in the party as has
anybody else, certainly as much as certain people from
Birmingham. They can't turn us out, and we, the Tory Free
Traders, have as much right to dictate the policy of the
Conservative Party as have any reactionary Fair Traders." In 1904
the Conservative Party already recognized Churchill as one