And although he addressed them
more with sorrow than with anger, to Balfour and Chamberlain he
daily administered advice and reproof, while mere generals and
field-marshals, like Kitchener and Roberts, blushing under new
titles, were held up for public reproof and briefly but severely
chastened. Nor, when he saw Lord Salisbury going astray, did he
hesitate in his duty to the country, but took the Prime Minister by
the hand and gently instructed him in the way he should go.
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.
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