If there is divergence between us in regard to the methods by which we are to raise our revenue, there is also divergence in regard to the objects on which we are to spend them.  We are, on both sides, inclined to agree that we are approaching, if we have not actually entered on, one of the climacterics of our national life.  We see new forces at work in the world, and they are not all friendly forces.  We see new conditions abroad and around us, and they are not all favourable conditions; and I think there is a great deal to be said for those who on both sides of politics are urging that we should strive for a more earnest, more strenuous, more consciously national life.  But there we part, because the Conservative Party are inclined too much to repose their faith for the future security and pre-eminence of this country upon naval and military preparations, and would sometimes have us believe that you can make this country secure and respected by the mere multiplication of ironclad ships.  We shall not exclude that provision, and now indeed ask the Committee to enable us to take the steps to secure us that expansion of revenue which will place our financial resources beyond the capacity of any Power that we need to take into consideration.  But we take a broader view.  We are not going to measure the strength of great countries only by their material resources.  We think that the supremacy and predominance of our country depend upon the maintenance of the vigour and health of its population, just as its true glory must always be found in the happiness of its cottage homes.  We believe that if Great Britain is to remain great and famous in the world, we cannot allow the present social and industrial disorders, with their profound physical and moral reactions, to continue unchecked.  We propose to you a financial scheme, but we also advance a policy of social organisation.  It will demand sacrifices from all classes; it will give security to all classes.  By its means we shall be able definitely to control some of the most wasteful processes in our social life, and without it our country will remain exposed to vital dangers, against which fleets and armies are of no avail.

FOOTNOTES: 

[16] Mr. Wyndham.

[17] Mr. Austen Chamberlain.

THE BUDGET AND NATIONAL INSURANCE

THE FREE TRADE HALL, MANCHESTER, May 23, 1909

(From The Manchester Guardian, by permission.)

Considering that you have all been ruined by the Budget, I think it very kind of you to receive me so well.  When I remember all the injuries you have suffered—­how South Africa has been lost; how the gold mines have been thrown away; how all the splendid army which Mr. Brodrick got together has been reduced to a sham; and how, of course, we have got no navy of any kind whatever, not even a fishing smack, for the thirty-five millions