Page "Arthur Balfour" Paragraph 19

This was not, however, sufficient for either the free traders or the more extreme tariff reformers in the government.

With Balfour's agreement, Chamberlain resigned from the Cabinet in late 1903 to stump the country in favour of Tariff Reform.

At the same time, Balfour tried to balance the two factions by accepting the resignation of three free-trading ministers, including Chancellor Ritchie, but the almost simultaneous resignation of the free-trader Duke of Devonshire ( who as Lord Hartington had been the Liberal Unionist leader of the 1880s ) left Balfour's Cabinet looking weak.

By 1905 relatively few Unionist MPs were still free traders ( the young Winston Churchill crossed over to the Liberals in 1904 when threatened with deselection at Oldham ), but Balfour's long balancing act had drained his authority within the government.