a year we give the Admiralty; and when I remember that in spite of all these evils the taxes are so oppressive and so cruel that any self-respecting Conservative will tell you he cannot afford either to live or die, I think it remarkable that you should be willing to give me such a hearty welcome back to Manchester.  Yes, sir, when I think of the colonies we have lost, of the Empire we have alienated, of the food we have left untaxed, and the foreigners we have left unmolested, and the ladies we have left outside, I confess I am astonished to find you so glad to see me here again.

It is commonly said that our people are becoming hysterical, and that Britain is losing her old deep-seated sagacity for judging men and events.  That is not my view.  I have been taught that the dock always grows near the nettle.  I am inclined to think that in a free community every evil carries with it its own corrective, and so I believe that sensationalism of all kinds is playing itself out, and, overdoing, is itself undone.  And the more our scaremongers cry havoc, and panic, and airships, and sea-serpents, and all the other things they see floating around, the greater is the composure and the greater is the contempt with which the mass of the nation receives these revelations, and the more ready they are to devote their mind to the large and serious problems of national and social organisation which press for solution and for action at the present time, and upon which his Majesty’s Government have notable proposals to make.

I come to you this afternoon to speak about the political situation and the Budget, or rather I come to speak to you about the Budget, because the Budget is the political situation; and I ask you, as if it were at an election, whether you will support the policy of the Budget or not.  Let us look into it.

What is the position in which we find ourselves?  After reducing the taxes on coal, on tea, on sugar, and on the smaller class of incomes by nearly L7,000,000 a year, and after paying back L40,000,000 of debt in three years, we find that new circumstances and new needs make it necessary that we should obtain fresh revenue for the service of the State.

What are the reasons for this demand?  There are three reasons—­and only three.  Old-age pensions, the navy, and the decrease in the revenue derived from alcoholic liquor.  From those three causes we require sixteen millions more money this year than we did last year.  Now who has a right—­this is my first question—­to reproach us for that?  Certainly the Conservative Party have no right.

Take first the case of old-age pensions.  I do not think their record is a very good one on that.  They promised old-age pensions to win the general election of 1895.  They were in power for ten years and they made no effort to redeem their pledge.  Again, Mr. Chamberlain, in 1903, promised old-age pensions as a part of his Tariff Reform proposal, but the Conservative Party refused to agree to the inclusion of old-age pensions in that programme and forced that great man in the height of his power and his career to throw out old-age pensions from the Tariff Reform programme and to write a letter to the newspapers to say that he had done so.