On Tuesday Mr. Herbert Samuel moved the new Financial Resolution
in a speech of five minutes. Mr. Mildmay very justly pointed out that the Liberals were abandoning Free Trade ; the strange thing was that they voted for what they
all condemned. He had asked a Liberal whether he liked the regulations as to Customs and Excise. "Like them !" was the answer, " I don't like them any more than I like the pro- visions for the Post Office, but in these days we cannot give effect to our views." Mr. Austen Chamberlain said that with the exception of Mr. Lough there was not a single Liberal who agreed with the financial scheme. Instead of "cutting losses" the Government were going to increase them, and instead of allaying friction between England and Ireland they were going to create it. " Taking," he said, " the powers as given by the Bill, combining them with the use of bounties as allowed by the Bill, and enforcing them by the device of State monopolies, they can make as complete a system of Protection in Ireland as anybody wants."
