Mr. Asquith, as President of the London Liberal Federation, addressed
on Tuesday a private meeting of the leading members of the Party Associations. Liberalism, he said, was not the creed of Quiescence or of doubt, and its articles could not be engraved once for all on tables of stone. The Liberals of 1832 would have been not a little scared by the new Franchise Bill. He himself, though he had passed Home Rule, Welsh Disestahlishment, and the Parlia- ment Act, was conscious that some of the more ardent spirits regarded him as a "back-number." But the Party must continue to be progressive in dealing with the new proLlems of the near future, in the changed perspective eauscd iv the war. Mr. Asquith touched on the Land question, cspeciafly in towns, and on Free Trade, which, though qualified by the necessity of maintaining essential or " basic " industries, must, he thought, continue to be the ruling principle of our economic system. He urged his hearers not to enter into a controversy abcut goneralititm, but to grapple with particular cases.
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