working outside the breastworks. Just before the Easter vacation of
that year, when he rose to speak a remarkable demonstration was
made against him by his Unionist colleagues, all of them rising
and leaving the House.

To the Liberals who remained to hear him he stated that if to his
constituents his opinions were obnoxious, he was ready to resign
his seat. It then was evident he would go over to the Liberal Party.
Some thought he foresaw which way the tidal wave was coming,
and to being slapped down on the beach and buried in the sand, he
preferred to be swept forward on its crest. Others believed he left
the Conservatives because he could not honestly stomach the taxed
food offered by Mr. Chamberlain.

In any event, if he were to be blamed for changing from one party
to the other, he was only following the distinguished example set
him by Gladstone, Disraeli, Harcourt, and his own father.

It was at the time of this change that he was called "the best hated
man in England," but the Liberals welcomed him gladly, and the
National Liberal Club paid him the rare compliment of giving in
his honor a banquet. There were present two hundred members.
Up to that time this dinner was the most marked testimony to his
importance in the political world. It was about then, a year since,
that he prophesied: "Within nine months there will come such a
tide and deluge as will sweep through England and Scotland, and
completely wash out and effect a much-needed spring cleaning in
Downing Street."

When the deluge came, at Manchester, Mr. Balfour was defeated,