The Evening Standard of Wednesday gives an interesting account of
the view of the Budget taken by M. Yves Guyot, the eminent French economist and Free-trader. After saying that Tariff Reformers are rejoicing in the prophecy that Mr. Asquith's successors will be obliged to have recourse to a Protectionist Budget, M. Guyot remarks that this argument leaves the Liberals without an answer, since every social reform necessitates an increase of burden, and when the Liberal Party introduces such it is not only false to its name, but to the traditions of Budgetary economies, which have hitherto made its strength and its popularity. The concjusion is worth quoting in extenso :— " Mr. Asquith is proud to-day of his Budget compared to the financial embarrassments of other countries, but he is creating the same embarrassments for his successors. He forces on them expenditure like that of the old-age pensions, which in a few years' time will double by the lowering of the age-limit to sixty-five, and will amount to at least X12,000,000. Either new taxes or economies will be imperative. Economies in what ? Experi- ence shows that they will be made on useful and not useless articles. The enormous Budget of France is in rags, and that is the fate that awaits every Budget whose framer takes from one to give to another. Altogether, the Budget is superb, but it digs a hole for the future whose width and depth none can foretell."
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