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
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.
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