The Political Confusion The confusion in the Parties exceeds anything
experi- enced for many years. As it is about equally spread over the three Parties the tactical disadvantages more or less " cancel out." Thus, it would be as unreasonable to say that the Government will not continue to exist because Ministers are at cross purposes, as it would be to predict that the Unionists will not be called upon to form the next Government because they cannot agree upon any fiscal policy. The Liberal disagreements are less important, because of the smallness of the Party, and it must be admitted that they are less evident ; but no careful observer can have failed to notice a tendency for the strict Free Trade faiths to crumble. Mr. E. D. Simon had more Liberal sympathisers than avowed themselves when he asked that fiscal questions should be open to discussion, and Mr. Lloyd George has confessed to a freedom from prepossessions on the subject which he would hardly have aired a year ago.
* * - * *
