TOPICS OF THE DAY.
• THE VOICE OF THE COUNTRY. THE tendency in the Election Campaign is unmistakable. Mr. Bonar Law is going to win and Mr. Lloyd George not only to lose, but to have the most severe setback he has yet had in his political career. We were sure from the beginning that Mr. Bonar Law would carry the country, though, of course, it would have been absurd of us to hazard a guess as to the pro- portions of his victory. But now it is safe to say that his Government will remain in power with plenty of Parliamentary strength behind it.
To put it in another way, the country is going to show clearly, in spite of all the cross-currents, five things. The first is that it has no desire to turn Mr. Bonar Law's Government out; but has a strong wish to keep it in. Secondly, it will declare emphatically that it will not allow Mr. Lloyd George to come back to power. Four or five years hence, when it has forgotten his misdeeds, there may be a Lloyd-Georgian revival, but at present the prospect of a new Coalition under him is regarded with positive horror. Thirdly, the country will put an end, or something very much like an end, to Mr. Lloyd George's personal party, i.e., the so-called National Liberals. Fourthly, a large and compact body of Independent Liberals of the kind represented by Mr. Asquith, Lord Grey of Fallodon, and Mr. Runciman, will be returned —a result which will be all to the good. What we want is a serious and efficient Opposition. Without that no Government can ever be kept up to the mark. Fifthly, the country is going to put its brand of disapproval upon the Labour Party because of their mad proposals for a Capital Levy, for crippling industry by super- taxation, for the nationalization of certain industries, followed by the total elimination of private enterprise, and for their refusal to allow retrenchment in our most dangerous and expensive commitment, that is, Palestine. We are sincerely sorry that Labour should get a rebuff, but with the bad leadership it has had and with the sophistical and thoroughly anti-democratic attitude it has taken up, the result is inevitable.
The proof of what we have just said need not be dwelt upon in detail. It is written large in the daily political intelligence from the constituencies. We may, however, say something as to the setting of Mr. Lloyd George's political star. Some people are inclined to think that, because he is so lustily cheered at his rnee:•Mgs and makes such clever speeches, the country can not really be going against him. He knows better himself. There is every evidence that he realizes how thoroughly lie will he beaten, though, like the clever strategist and plucky fighter he is, he- is putting up a remarkably able rearguard action. Contrast his action with that of Mr. Bonar Law. Mr. Lloyd George has issued no address. He has put forward no policy. Instead, he has kept himself free to adopt any programme, whether of Labour or any other Party, and to work with any group or leader. Especially does he cast a sly glance at the Labour voters, and, in carefully veiled terms, express his sympathy with them. His attitude, indeed, might be described as one of waiting to see which way the cat jumps and waiting in such a position as to be able instantly to jump after her.
An even more striking proof of the fact that Mr. Lloyd George is beaten and knows it is his complete abandonment of that fierce and aggressive hostility towards his colleagues which he at first adopted. Then he was all for taking his sword in his right hand and smiting his enemies hip and thigh. But that. mood lasted only about five days. Though his opponents made nc overtures, he began to change like the scene in a harlequinade, and his shining sword gradually turned into a comfortable Camp umbrella. That blousy umbrella has now been spread as shelter against the storm, and under- neath it we see a grave old gentleman talking more in sorrow than-in anger about those whom he still loves and longs to be friends with, but who, out of the naughtiness of their hearts, reject his advances. He bends his kindly, gentle face to talk about " the accumulation of property, frugality, thrift, health, sobriety, industry, restraint and care." Finally, he pulls out the idyllic stop and talks about his " little place down in Surrey "—" not much of a place," so small, indeed, that " when the revolution comes no revolutionary commissary will think it worth while confiscating it." Therefore, he feels pretty safe, and if bad weather comes lie will have a " little shelter somewhere near London." His anxiety, indeed, tc convince his hearer that his Surrey house is not mueli of a place made him on Tuesday repeat this fact over and over again. He ended up this pathetic building passage as follows : " Well, it's not much of a place, but I planted a rhododendron there, and I have three or four rose trees, and, believe me, there are no roses in the market like them." When the spring comes he is going to look at " the little flowers bursting through the greensward and just looking at me and giving in welcome. . . . I don't mind telling you that the little snowdrops will give me greater joy than all the splendour of the finest orchids at Kew. Now that is something of my own. I have worked at it."
Jt is difficult to transcribe these touching words dry- eyed. One feels that one would like to rush out and buy Mr. Lloyd George a shilling packet of seeds and a little watering-pot, and help him to dig his sweet and pathetic little garden ! But perhaps, after all, one must not take the thing too tragically. Mr. Lloyd George's scale of estimation has been so enlarged since he ruled the world and dealt out kingdoms like buns at a school- treat that he has no doubt rather lost the sense of propor- tion. What for the moment seems to him a tiny cottage, "a little place" with a rose tree, a rhododendron and a snowdrop, is, in fact, we are assured, nothing that need give his friends any anxiety. It is even alleged by excited admirers to be a cottage with eight or nine bedrooms and what the auctioneers call " park-like grounds " of twenty or thirty acres, and fitted with the very newest methods of securing the simple life, and " constant hot water," for the well-to-do.
At any rate, we are not reminding Mr. Lloyd George of the realities of his " little place " with any intention either to sneer at it, or to object to it, or to create prejudice. On the contrary, we are exceedingly glad to find that Mr. Lloyd George is in a position to have so pleasant a retreat of his own. We want him to rest, and to rest as comfort- ably as possible, and we should not have said a word about the charms of his new house if he had not raised the point himself and tried to harrow susceptible hearts by a description of his new home almost as touching as that embalmed in the famous couplet :— " A little garden little Jowett made,
And fenced it with a little palisade."
Very different, indeed, are the impressions given by Mr. Bonar Law's speeches. We know from them exactly what his policy is to be. Though there is nothing to move us about a " little place " in Surrey, or Downing Street, or South Kensington, we get a very frank, clear and true picture of what the Prime Minister stands for and what he hopes to do. " Oh, gentlemen, what a comfort it is to have a man who means what he says, and means you to understand what he says ! "
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