It is curious, however, that Mr. Lloyd George should be
held up as the leader most fit to enforce economy. Before the war Mr. Lloyd George's metier was to promise his followers refreshing fruit to be paid for at the expense of other people. During the war his undoubted buoyancy and his power to provoke enthusiasm, valuable though -they were, had to be paid for—he never reckoned the cost so long as he got what he wanted. We are apt saying that he was altogether wrong, for the war certainly had to be won at any cost. But to settle disputes with Labour by granting every demand that was made :it almost a moment's notice was not exaotly a good training in economy. Mr. Lloyd George is not, and never was, a financier in the line of the great Chancellors of the Exchequer. One of his favourite financial proposals, the taxation of land values, was a miserable fiasco. It resulted in a loss to the country, as the oost of col- lection was much greater than the revenue from the tax.
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