In the Commons on Tuesday Sir 3. Handles moved a
reso- lution asking the House to regret Mr. Lloyd George's repeated inaccuracies and his gross and unfounded personal attacks upon individuals. Mr. Lloyd George's defence was twofold. He repudiated the charge of personal attacks on landlords, because he had not mentioned the name of the Duke of Sutherland or Sir John Stirling-Maxwell. He only gave illustrations in order to establish his case, but he "carefully avoided drag- ging in names." His other line of defence was that, even if his details and figures needed revision, the evils which they were designed to expose existed and were admitted by his opponents. But in the main he reaffirmed all his statements, contending that his facts and figures were more accurate than those of his critics, and that they fully established his principle that land had one valuation when you sold it to the public and another when you contributed to public funds. For the rest, the speech was made up of adroit to vogues, a good debating point being scored by the quotation of Mr. Chamberlain's denunciation of the Highland clearances and the abuse heaped on him (Mr. Chamberlain) by the Conservative Press and Conservative politicians.
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