THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER ON ECONOMY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."
SIR,—In reading your article in the Spectator of March 17th on "The Chancellor of the Exchequer on Economy," I . wondered whether you were echoing Mr. Gladstone's words, as quoted in Mr. Morley's Life. I there read : " No Chancellor of the Exchequer is worth his salt who makes his own popularity his first, or any consideration : he is the trusted and confiden- tial steward of the public: he is under a sacred obligation with regard to all that he consents to spend." Again : "With the so-called increase of expenditure grows up what may be termed a spirit of expenditure." And finally : " It is a mark of a chicken-hearted Chancellor when he shrinks from up- holding economy in detail, when because it is a question of only two or three thousand pounds, he says that is no matter." It is, I think, a happy augury that the Liberal Party should have for its Chancellor of the Exchequer one who has drunk so deeply of the spirit of Gladstonian finance.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
