Editing Joseph Chamberlain (section)

===Resignation from cabinet and public campaign===
Five days in advance of the scheduled meeting, Chamberlain dramatically sent a letter of resignation to Balfour on 9 September, explaining his wish to campaign publicly for imperial preference outside the Cabinet. An hour before the meeting, Chamberlain and Balfour agreed that Chamberlain would publicly resign if the Cabinet could not be persuaded to adopt the new policy, and Austen Chamberlain would be promoted to chancellor to speak for his father inside the Cabinet. If Chamberlain's public campaign was successful, Balfour could endorse imperial preference at the next general election.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

When the Cabinet failed to endorse his proposals, Chamberlain resigned. Balfour did not tell the meeting about Chamberlain's letter, instead telling many members he believed that Chamberlain was not serious. He then forced the resignations of Ritchie and [[Alexander Hugh Bruce, 6th Lord Balfour of Burleigh|Lord Balfour of Burleigh]]. The next day, [[Lord George Hamilton]] resigned, as did Devonshire.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}{{efn|Devonshire rescinded his resignation after learning of Chamberlain's letter, but re-submitted it after Balfour announced his fiscal policy on 1 October.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}}} After Devonshire's resignation, Chamberlain asserted his authority over the Liberal Unionists, and the [[National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations]] declared majority support for tariff reform.<ref name="Sydney Zebel 1967 pp 131"/>

On 6 October 1903, Chamberlain began the campaign with a speech at Glasgow. With firm support from provincial Unionists and most of the press, Chamberlain extolled the virtues of imperialism and imperial preference to vast crowds. The newly formed [[Tariff Reform League]] received vast funding, allowing it to print and distribute large numbers of leaflets and even to play Chamberlain's recorded messages to public meetings by gramophone.

Chamberlain himself spoke at [[Greenock]], [[Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]], [[Liverpool]], and [[Leeds]], within the first month. At Greenock, he argued free trade threatened British industry, declaring, "Sugar is gone. Silk has gone. Iron is threatened. Wool is threatened. Cotton will go! How long are you going to stand it? At the present moment these industries... are like sheep in a field."<ref name=tariffreform>Ian McDonald, ''Politics in Britain 1898–1914: Lords, Ladies, Lib, Free Trade and Ireland – The Postcard Album'', 1998, no 27</ref> At Liverpool, Chamberlain was escorted by mounted police amidst wild cheering.<ref name=tariffreform/> Intending to enlist the working class, Chamberlain assured his audience that tariff reform ensured low unemployment, campaigning with the slogan, "Tariff Reform Means Work for All." When ''[[The Daily News (UK)|The Daily News]]'' countered that official import prices demonstrated a loaf of bread under tariff reform would be smaller than under free trade, Chamberlain arranged for two loaves to be baked based upon the respective prices. On 4 November 1903, Chamberlain put the loaves on display at Bingley Hall and, raising them aloft, asked the audience, "Is it not a sporting question... as to which is the larger?"<ref name="tariffreform" /> While Chamberlain toured the country, [[Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer|Shadow Chancellor]] [[H. H. Asquith]] followed, preaching the virtues of free trade in the same venues only days later. Asquith's Liberals healed divisions to rally for free trade while Unionist divisions became more apparent.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

The campaign had a brief intermission in February 1904, when Chamberlain, suffering from [[gout]] and [[neuralgia]], took a two-month holiday. Around this time, he decided that the Unionists were likely to lose the next election and criticised Balfour, who had endorsed cautious protectionism but was unwilling to go further or announce an early general election, for delaying the inevitable. Chamberlain now hoped Balfour's guarded fiscal doctrine would fail, probably with a strategy of eventually leading the Unionists on a purely protectionist platform after their expected defeat in the general election. He wrote to his son Neville that "The Free Traders are ''common'' enemies. We must clear them out of the party & let them disappear."{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

By the end of 1904, the Tariff Reform League's numerous branches rivaled the [[National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations|Conservative National Union]], and Chamberlain attempted to secure the League's representation inside [[Conservative Central Office]]. Balfour maintained his programme of retaliatory tariffs and attempted to minimise the apparent differences between Chamberlain and himself. Publicly, Chamberlain claimed that Balfour's stance was a precursor to full imperial preference. Approaching seventy years of age in 1905, Chamberlain continued to campaign for tariff reform with zeal and energy. Reconciliation appeared imminent when Balfour agreed to a general election after the 1906 Colonial Conference, but Balfour rescinded the agreement after backbench opposition and demanded party unity. Chamberlain ignored his demand and intensified the campaign in November 1905, resulting directly in Balfour's resignation on 4 December.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}