I mentioned last week, with some scepticism, Lord Samuel's sug-
gestion that a Meredith vogue, like the recent Trollope vogue, might be in prospect. It is not a matter on which much decisive informa- tion can be available, but the Oxford Press has just included The Egoist in its World's Classics series, and has had to reprint ; and the Penguin people have added The Tragic Comedians to their collection. Meanwhile the editions of Meredith which Messrs. Constable publish are selling steadily, but with no striking evidence of an increased demand. That, however, may well come when Mr. Siegfried Sassoon's forthcoming critical biography of Meredith appears, for that combination of writer and subject holds high promise. None the less I still decline to believe that Meredith will ever make a popular appeal comparable to Trollope's.
What the Labour Party says and what the present Government says are admittedly two different things. It would not be right, therefore, to attribute to the Government a glaringly deceptive state- ment embodied in one of the latest of the Labour Party's handbills. It dwells on the inflated prices of foodstuffs from America and continues : " But YOU don't have to pay them when you buy your food in the shops. WHY ? Because the British Government pays nearly £40o million a year towards the cost of your food, so that YOU don't have to have to pay inflated prices."
"The British Government" pays nearly £400 millions. And where does the British Government get that from ? No doubt the rich are taxed to keep food cheap for the poor, but the poor have their share of taxes to pay too. No grosser deception could be perpetrated than the suggestion that the Government in some mysterious way gets £400 million from nowhere to subsidise food. The subsidy comes out of the pockets of the taxpayer, and the food goes into his mouth. * * * *
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