Sir Robert Giffen, who died suddenly in Scotland on Tuesday
at the age of seventy-three, was not only a great statistician, but an honest man of strong common-sense and great natural kindliness. Beginning life as a journalist, he was intimately associated with Bagehot on the Economist, and frequently contributed to the Spectator. It was not, however, till he was forty that, on the invitation of a Conservative Government, he was transferred from journalism to the Civil Service. He spent twenty years in the Board of Trade, and since his retirement had rendered most valuable service by his writings on the subject of national finance. A moderate Liberal, a sane Imperialist, and a convinced Free- trader, he revolted against the " Lloyd-Georgising " of his party, and vindicated his support of the Unionist candidate at the last Election on the ground that the Liberal Government returned in 1906 had betrayed its trust. " We who are Free- traders," he wrote, " have been 'sold' by the Government. We have learnt our lesson, and never again can we trust a party which pretends to be Free-trade and uses its power to destroy institutions which we consider vital to the national welfare." His last article was an extremely damaging analysis of the Budget in the Quarterly Review.
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