Lord Lansdowne was entertained at dinner on Wednesday night by
the Conservative Club, and in replying to the toast of his health spoke at length on the political situation. The Radical Party, he observed, were on the eve of a wholly new departure in which they would start from a much lower plane of prestige and reputation than that from which they started two years ago. In finance they had chosen a moment at which a very large augmentation of national expenditure in the immediate future was inevitable for the inauguration of an old-age pension scheme which might cost anything up to 230,000,000. The campaign against the House of Lords Lord Lansdowne described as the dampest of all damp fireworks. Indeed, he went so far as to say that nine out of ten of his countrymen believed it was far better that the
House of Lords should make an occasional mistake than that the House of Commons should be given an absolutely free hand to deal with legislation. Lord Lansdowne con- cluded by appealing to the new Government to avail them. selves of their opportunities in a spirit of moderation. In that case they would find the Opposition critical, but certainly not obstructive.
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