Mr. Asquith, who presided over the annual dinner of the
Cambridge University Eighty Club last Saturday evening, after paying graceful and well-deserved compliments to the guest of the evening, Mr. W. S. Robson, K.C., M.P., devoted the rest of his speech to answering that of Mr. Chamberlain. A few months ago their opponents lamented the absence of effective opposition. But now when they ventured to criticise the Government's scheme of Army reform and Education Bill, Mr. Chamberlain denounced:Ahem for their presumptuous and unpatriotio attitude. With regard to the Budget, Mr. Asquith vigorously repudiated the idea that the Liberals sought to make political capital out of the reluctance of the people who had urged or approved the war to pay for it. As regards the war expenditure, their criticism was that it threw far too little on taxation and provided for far too much by permanent additions to the Debt The real seriousness of the Budget, he went on, was its revelation of the continuous and immense growth of our normal expenditure under a Tory Government. No Opposition worthy the name would shirk the duty of proclaiming the dangers of this automatic growth. In conclusion, Mr. Asquith declared that there never had been a louder or clearer call for an effective Opposition, in which declaration we entirely agree with him, and appealed to the Liberals to close their ranks and strenuously adopt a policy of concentration and activity.
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