NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ON Thursday Mr. Lloyd George opened his first Budget. The main fact, a fact the sinister significance of which cannot be exaggerated, is that he has, even on his own optimistic calculations, to find over £16,000,000 either by fresh taxation or its equivalent. When last August we declared that this would be the case, we were denounced as either mad or malignant, and the Premier did not scruple to denounce the editor of the Spectator by name to a .Congress of Inter- national Free-Traders for his " faint-hearted " and "woe- begone" conduct. We do not know whether Mr. Asquith felt woebegone on Thursday; but if not, he must be singularly insensitive to the injury he and his colleagues have done, not only to the cause of Free-trade, but to the national interests. It is impossible to add £16,000,000 to the country's already heavy burdens without results of the gravest character.
