The Debate in The Country (May–July 1903)

Abstract

The truce inside the Cabinet prevented the Tariff Reform and Free Trade Ministers from leading their forces into battle. Bal-four’s refusal to give time for a debate on the new policy, unless on a vote of censure, muzzled the House of Commons. Procedure in the House of Lords was more elastic, but Devonshire was known to sympathise with Free Trade and did not offer much of a target to the Liberal leaders. In these circumstances the great debate passed from the Cabinet and Parliament to the Press, the Clubs and the Party Associations up and down the country. The Government were to get their Enquiry but scarcely in the form they had expected.