It will, of course, be said by the Liberals that
this is a piece of shameless impudence on the part of the Unionists, and that they are trying to make their opponents responsible for the financial difficulties and embarrassments caused by the action of the Lords. We venture to say, however, that this is a very superficial view, and that when the country has the true state of the case placed before it by Lord Lansdowne, it will recognise that but for a mixture of temper and " slim " tactics on the part of the Government it would have been perfectly possible in the time at their disposal, and with the co-operation promised by the Unionists, to make provision for the legal collecting of the Income-tax,—the only tax the non-collection of which is causing embarrassment. The Government might quite well have legalised the ls. 2d. Income-tax without prejudicing the right which they claim to pass the contentious taxes later,—namely, the Land-taxes, the License-duties, and the super-tax.
