In the coarse of his expressions of horror at the
folly of borrowing bit by bib—" there is nothing that puts up the price of money so much and depresses seaarity so ninth as a constant going to the market for your five and ten millions "— he accused Lord Lansdowne of a desire to smash the credit of this country, which has got the best credit in Europe ! Saul among the prophets was as nothing to Mr. Lloyd George posing as the intrepid exponent of conservative finance. It is, indeed, only by a great effort that one recognizes underneath the uniform of the Bank of England Beadle the red cap of the fiscal pirate who has so often raided the Sinking Fund, has added some forty millions a year to the national expenditure, in whose time Consols have sunk nearly to seventy, and who has made the taxpayers, rich and poor, walk the plank in unending streams. Mr. Lloyd George became, indeed, so excited by the unwonted experience of defending the national credit from attack that he actually forgot the essential principle of the present Government, which is never to touch on Ireland or the Irish problem except with bated breath, and with a good round gift for the Nationalists in your hand. He used expressions about Irish land purchase under the Wyndham Act which were in effect an allegation that the Irish landlords and tenants had put their heads together to rob the State.
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