We have dealt elsewhere with the general situation created by
Mr. Asquith's speech. We must, however, protest as Free- traders against his monstrous suggestion that the Liberals should at the next General Election go to the country on the double cry of Free-trade and "Down with the Lords." The present Government have already done incalculable injury to Free-trade through their policy of Soeialistio social reform. To force upon Unionist Free-traders, and indeed on all moderate Free-traders, the alternatives of Tariff Reform or a single Chamber would, we had imagined till Mr. Asquith's speech, be too great a betrayal of the cause of Free-trade even for the Government. We warn the Ministry and the Liberal Party that if they persist in so mad a policy they will find thousands of electors obliged to declare that it will be better to vote for Tariff Reformers, hateful as such an act would be, than to place the country at the mercy of a single House, a House controlled by the caucus and the "guillotine," for that is what the abolition of the veto of the Lords means in practice. Not only will this Government make no sacrifice to maintain Free-trade, but they claim the right to use Free- trade as a weapon in a party faction fight.
Previous page
