Current Literature
no doubt that those who call themselves the Liberal Party have brains out of proportion to their exiguous repre- sentation in Parliament. Here we have, reprinted with the blessing of their volatile leader, a series of addresses given by Liberals to the London Liberal Candidates Association two years ago and later. Naturally some are not up to date :
indeed, Mr. Layton's well-informed paper on the Free Trade Movement in Europe has to be supplemented by an account of what happened at the Economic Conference at Geneva this year. Professor Gilbert Murray tries to explain " What- Liberalism stands for " in one of the least satisfactory of these addresses. A scholar should be welcomed into party politics for broader views and greater accuracy than the rank-and-file possess. It is therefore disappointing to find one who sinks to such stupid abuse as to say that ignorance, cruelty, vice, vulgarity and the mob remain the true permanent pillars of the Tory Party." A sharper twist is given to names and principles when Mr. Keynes calls the publisher of the book a very extreme Conservative," whereas he professes the old Radical individualism—the antithesis of Toryism. The best paper is Mr. Ramsay Muir's on Liberalism and the Empire. We do not grudge him an exaggerated paean on the Imperial work of the Liberal Party, for the Empire is the greatest example of really liberal statesmanship, endorsed by all Unionists. (We do protest against his calling Edward Gibbon Wakefield " a man whose name is almost forgotten " !) Those who have forgotten the " Tea-party " of 1773 or have no fears of another at home or in the Dominions should study this address, for it is a warning against breaking the real bonds of Empire by introducing tariffs and bargaining in "business" which may lead to any friction. Mr. Spender and Mr. Wilson Harris deal with foreign affairs, both honestly, but Mr. Harris seems superficial by comparison.. Mr. Stuart Hodgson is sound on political Trade Unionism, but Mr. Eagar on the Land ignores all the immediate difficulties of agriculture.
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