In the course of a speech at Wolverhampton on Wednesday
Mr. Lloyd George made a vulgar and gratuitous attack on Lord Midleton, who, as Mr. Brodrick, was a Member of the House of Commons and Minister for War. "Then a constituency which had voted Tory since the days of Caractacus sent Mr. Brodrick about his business." Mr. Lloyd George, after saying that a very short time after- wards Mr. Brodrick reappeared under another name in the Upper House, went on: " How did he get there ? Was he chosen ? (laughter). A relative of his passed away (laughter); he inherited a great property and title, and his gain became the nation's loss ! (laughter)." We know that politicians are apt to say foolish and unmannerly things at elections, but against the brutality of this attack on Lord Midleton we feel bound to protest. Mr. St. John Brodrick succeeded to the title he now bears on the death of his father, a man universally respected in the district in which he lived. This is the event at which Mr. Lloyd George thinks it seemly to deride, and to represent as a piece of good fortune for Lord Midleton. What would have been said by Mr. Lloyd George's friends if some Peer had used such language and such innuendoes in regard, say, to the death of Mr. Lloyd George's father ? A more offensive and unjustifiable outrage on the decencies of public life it would be difficult to imagine.
Previous page
