Mr. John Burns broke his long silence on Friday, the
17th, when he addressed his constituents at great length. The Parliament whose existence bad been arbitrarily terminated by the usurpation of the Peers would be known as " the best Parliament of the last hundred years." After recounting its achievements in a strain Of unmixed eulogy, Mr. Burns declared that our Navy had been maintained supreme, and that "our strength is as the strength of ten, because our cause is peace." In all Government Departments there had been a social impulse and a humanising element never before dis- played to the same extent. As for the Budget, the people were going to have it whether the Peers liked it or not. To raise the money required the Chancellor of the Exchequer- had either to tax the poor through their necessities' or the rich through their luxuries, and he chose the latter alternative. The Budget was getting more popular the more it was explained and known, and by the time the Election arrived it would be enthusiastically received by the people. To the parish of Battersea, where ninety per cent. of the inhabi- tants paid no Income-tax at all, it was a boon and a blessing.
Previous page
