24 NOVEMBER 1923, Page 2

Meanwhile, the reunited Liberals have been by no means inactive.

Mr. Churchill is contesting a Leicester division. On Friday, November 16th, he made a some- what stentorian appeal for Free Trade at Manchester, and he is now speaking nightly in his constituency. But the most important Liberal address has unquestion- ably been Mr. Lloyd George's at Northampton. Here, at any rate, was a classic " electioneering " speech. It would perhaps be fanciful to compare Mr. Lloyd George . with the Bourbons. But his year of political exile, if it has taught him no new devices of the -orator has unquestionably not made him forget the old. His was a real pre-War speech, sounding oddly, noisily, tinnily in our sad post-War world. Yet, in its way, it was one of the best speeches that have been delivered, for the simple reason that Mr. Lloyd George is perhaps the best speaker. It assailed the Government on its weakest point—that of foreign policy ; it stated more graphically than it had been stated before the true reactions of a policy of Free Trade. And yet it was so offensive in tone that there can be little doubt that it has done the Liberal cause harm rather than good. * * * *