Mr. Lowe replied briefly, diaclaiming utterly the character of financial
" hints " which had been attributed to his various ex- pressions of private opinion ; but conceding that a good deal of reference to "prospective" finance was, under the circumstances, justified. He granted, of course, the delay asked for, and pro- posed to proceed with Ways and Means on Monday. Then arose private members to congratulate or taunt the Government on hav- ing given way,—Lord George Cavendish, fully conscious of wield- ing great Cavendish influence, and treating the Government like the "heavy father" of comedy, who has been justly offended, but is not implacable. He spoke very badly, and was much cheered as he took the Government once more to his bosom, and bade it not think of Succession duties again. Then Mr. Fawcett, lofty and implacable, denounced the Government for falling from sin to sin, and by placing all the iniquitous amount of new taxation on the Income-tax, trying to teach the democracy the evil lesson that they could be extravagant without cost to themselves. But generally on the Liberal side "bowels of compassion" seemed to be the order of the day. Mr. Iffingworth, Mr. Gilpin, Mr. Sinclair Aytoun, Mr. Pease, Lord Bury, Mr. Osborne, Mr. Buxton, all ex- pressed relentings, while Mr. Osborne and Lord Bury made what we trust will prove an ineffectual effort to retain their darling system of purchase, at least for a time. The Conservatives, on the whole, except Mr. T. Collins, did not relent, but frowned doubt- fully on the heavy Income-tax.
Previous page
