7 AUGUST 1909, Page 3

After some further sarcastic references to the great Dukes and

their pseudo-altruism, Mr. Lloyd George declared that the Government were placing the burdens on the broad shoulders. As one of the children of the people, he would never add to their burdens, and in framing his Budget he made up his mind that no cupboard should be bared, no lot would be harder to bear. The audience having greeted Mr. Lloyd George with musical honours as " a jolly good fellow," he addressed an overflow meeting in which, after a gratuitously insulting reference to Lord Curzon, he announced that the Government were going to give a million a year towards insuring against unemploy- ment, and two or three hundred thousand pounds towards labour exchanges. Mr. Lloyd George has made many intemperate speeches before this, but he has never made a franker appeal to party passion, cupidity, and class prejudice, or more persistently employed the resources of the demagogue to lower the tone of public controversy.