20 JUNE 1908, Page 2

To make the confusion the greater, the Chancellor Of the

Exchequer added :—" The pauper disqualification id on the face of it provisional ; nay, it is really provisional until Parliament otherwise orders. Parliament will have to make its order at an early opportunity, otherwise the Exchequer would suffer severely. A scheme for ten millions would be converted into a scheme for something like eleven and a half millions unless something were done in the course of the next three or four years to deal with this problem."

We confess to astonishment at Mr. Lloyd George's modera- tion. He is quite happy at spending ten millions, but shrinks back in terror and alarm at the notion of eleven and a half. Heaven forbid that we should discourage his feeling so strongly about an extra million and a half ; but for

all that, we cannot but express our wonder at his inversion of the proverb. With him, apparently, ce 'reed qua is dernier pas

qui coite.