28 OCTOBER 1922, Page 2

Napoleon was once told by an eager courtier that if

he were to die consternation would spread through all France, and that the nation would be dumbfounded by its grief: " Nonsense," replied Napoleon, " if I died suddenly, all that the people of France would say would be Poof I Thank Heaven that's over " At the present moment the British people are .saying just that. This does not mean, of course, that having .put Mr. Lloyd George in what they have come to think his place, that is, out of office, that they are going to be cruel or unjust. They have simply come to see that a change was necessary, that the confidence they had given in such unstinted measure has of late been misused, and that the proper remedy is to give the Prime Minister a rest.