After Mr. Boner Law, following the lead given him by
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had indulged in a wrangle with the Ministerialists as to whether the thousand tons of horseflesh sold in the East End of London was meant for cat's meat or man's meat, the amendment was negatived by a majority of 31 (285-254). Thus the first division in the new Parliament showed that the Government can only command a majority of 31 on a crucial point. In the late Parliament the majority on a similar issue was 380. Such is the result of popularising Free-trade by old-age pensions and other extravagant schemes of social reform. It may be remembered that when we as Free-traders protested against such a policy, and warned the Government that they were betraying the cause of Free-trade, we were told in the Westminster Gazette and elsewhere that we were academic innocents who did not understand the business of politics, and that it was absolutely necessary to make Free-trade popular by the intermixture of Socialistic measures !
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