Then it is said, “At any rate you cannot deny that the Budget is driving capital out of the country.”  I should like to point out to you that before the Budget was introduced, we were told that it was Free Trade that was driving capital out of the country.  Let that pass.  It is said we cannot deny that the Budget is driving capital out of the country.  I deny it absolutely.  To begin with, it is impossible to drive the greater part of our capital out of this country, for what is the capital of the country?  The greatest part of that capital is the land, the state of cultivation which exists, the roads, the railways, the mines, the mills—­this is the greatest part of the capital.  The owners of that capital might conceivably, if they thought fit, depart from the country, but their possessions would remain behind.

I shall be asked, What about all this foreign investment that is going on?  Is not British credit now being diverted abroad to foreign countries, to the detriment of our own country?  Is not British capital fleeing from The Socialistic speeches of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the President of the Board of Trade, and taking refuge in Germany, where of course there are no Socialists, or in other countries, where there is never any disturbance, like France, or Spain, or Russia, or Turkey?  Now let us look into that.  There are only two ways in which capital can leave this country for foreign investments.  It is no good sending bits of paper to the foreigner and expecting him to pay a dividend in return.  There are only two ways—­one is by exports made by British labour, and the other by bullion.  Now, if the exports were to increase, surely that should be a cause of rejoicing, especially to our Tariff Reformers, who regard the increase in exports as the index of national prosperity.  As for the second—­the export of bullion—­would you believe it, it is only a coincidence, but it is an amusing coincidence, there are actually six million pounds’ worth more gold in the country now, than there were at the beginning of the year before the Budget was introduced.  The active and profitable investment abroad which has marked the last two or three years, which is bound to swell the exports of the next few years, has not been attended by any starvation of home industry.  On the contrary, the amount of money forthcoming for the development of new industries and now enterprises in this country during the last two or three years has compared very favourably with the years which immediately preceded them, when the Conservative Government was in power.

Property in Great Britain is secure.  It would be a great mistake to suppose that that security depends upon the House of Lords.  If the security of property in a powerful nation like our own were dependent upon the action or inaction of 500 or 600 persons, that security would long ago have been swept away.  The security of property depends upon its wide diffusion among great numbers and all classes of the population,