Mr. Lloyd George addressed the inaugural meeting of the Gladstone
League on Wednesday in his now familiar extra.. Parliamentary manner. Real progress in this country, he declared, was barred in every direction by the feudal power. "Feudalism is the enemy, and we have got to deal with it." Turning to the Gladstone League, he welcomed its foundation, as it would furnish them with fighting men, and also help to secure the protection of the voter. "The other day a poacher got six months for his offence If a man's hares and rabbits are to be protected to that extent, why should not a workman's vote receive the same protection at the hands of the law ? " Mr. Lloyd George then proceeded to recount a number of cases of intimidation " verified " by the Gladstone League,— a shepherd threatened with dismissal for exhibiting the picture of the Liberal candidate ; a carpenter dismissed for asking a question at a Tory meeting ; a farm labourer dis- missed for going to the poll in a prominent Liberal's car. Landlords and employers claimed that wages bought a man's soul and conscience as well as his labour, and this was a claim inconsistent with the elementary rights of manhood. If he was asked why they had not prosecuted in these cases, his answer was that there was no Gladstone League at the General Election. "Prosecution in cases of this kind ought to follow hot-foot on the offence. You ought to have a League of this kind as a city of refuge for every persecuted voter to flee to, and an avenger of blood in the shape of an official of this League to prosecute the man who commits this offence."
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