TOPICS OF THE DAY.
MR. LLOYD GEORGE AND HIS SYSTEM OF ALTERNATIVES.
MR. LLOYD GEORGE has a master hand in the matter of alternatives. If one plan does not suit try the Dther. It is true that his alternatives sometimes look a little like those offered by the three-card-trick man Still, even there you are given a " free choice " I In the present crisis of the vanishing resignation we have had a double dose of alternatives. It began with a threat of resignation and the alternative of a quick coming to heel of the Unionist Party. When, however, the Unionists would not disavow Sir George Younger, Mr. Lloyd George would not resign. He merely withdrew to the mountain solitudes of Criccieth.
Now a brand-new alternative has been offered and accepted. Mr. Lloyd George is not going to talk any more about that boring subject resignation—Ne me dites pas cette bite de naot—he is going to talk about Genoa. Again he is not going to ask for a vote of confidence from those wicked Die-Hards. Yet his majority, precious jewel of the Parliamentary Demagogue, is not going to suffer thereby. Not a bit of it. It is actually going to increase. He is going to make good his losses in Die-Hards by gains in Labour and Wee Frees ! That is why the vote of confidence is to be earmarked Genoa. The Labour Party cannot vote against the Genoa Conference. To do so would offend Lenin and their own extremists ! The Wee Frees, again, must be in the Genoa Lobby. But with such allies Mr. Lloyd George can count on a splendid majority.
In a word, Mr. Lloyd George is unconsciously imitating Dido. When the unhappy queen could not get her own gods, her old legitimate supporters, to blast Sir George Younger—we mean, of course, the pious 2Eneas—she was very cross, but not defeated. " Never mind," she said in effect, " I may be a deeply injured woman, but I am not done for. I have an alternative. If my old friends won't listen to me I will appeal to the other side—Acheronta 9novebo." So Mr. Lloyd George : " If I can't get a satisfac- tory vote of confidence out of these wretched Unionists, by Jingo I'll get one from the Labour Party and the Asquithians. '
That, we admit, is extremely clever, as well as extremely amusing. But it is not going to pay in the end. It is not even going to ward off resignation very long. It will no doubt do some injury to the Unionist Party as a whole —not a matter of regret just now, we fancy, with Mr. Lloyd George—but it will not really help him. Strive as he may, the charm is already broken. He is now entering on that pathetic stage which comes to all enchanters— the stage when the spells begin to fail. The wizard does a great magic and nothing happens—or so little as to cause a laugh rather than the old shudder of fear and amazement.
Mr. Lloyd George, of course, counts an coming home from Genoa " bearing rebellion broached on his sword," but he will find his position little bettered by that ephemeral triumph, if triumph of any sort there is. If he counts upon it to sweep the country at the polls he is living in a fool's paradise. The country at the General Election will be thinking of very different things. The chief of these will be " Oh, what fools we have been to waste three precious years in squandering our money." But that will be a very dangerous mood for Mr. Lloyd George, for the British people are now thoroughly convinced that he was the arch-squanderer.
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