The Finance Bill was discussed in Committee on Tues- day.
Attempts were made by Members in all parts of the House to convince the Government that some kinds of agricultural land would not be exempted from the Increment- duty even by the new amendment. Mr. Lloyd George replied that he had been accused of eaying that no agricultural value was to be taxed. "I never said anything of the kind. I said that no purely agricultural land would be taxed, and I still say so." On Wednesday the Budget was read a third time in the House of Commons after an amendment for its rejection had been defeated by 324 votes to 231,—a majority of 93. Mr. Asquith closed the debate with a speech in which he passed in review both its main features and its history. He declared that the charge of a bargain with the Irish was " arrant, rank, transparent hypocrisy," " and con- cluded with a tribute to the " genius, tact, patience, and courage" of Mr. Lloyd George, who had produced the finan- cial scheme which would prove to be "an adequate, ample,. and expanding reservoir alike for the needs of national defence and of social reform."
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