guarded, and are now appreciably augmented, and that authority and influence have been consistently employed, and will be in the future employed, in soothing international rivalries and suspicion, in asserting a proper respect for public law, in preserving a just and harmonious balance amongst great Powers, and in forwarding as opportunities have served, whether in the Near East or in the Congo, causes of a generous and disinterested humanitarianism.

The British Empire itself has enjoyed under Liberal rule a period of prosperous tranquillity, favourable both to development and consolidation; and it is no exaggeration to say that it was never more strong or more peacefully united than at the present moment.  The confidence which the whole country, irrespective of party, feels in Sir Edward Grey in the present European crisis, is the measure of our success in foreign affairs.  The gathering of the Convention of a United South Africa is in itself a vindication of colonial policy.  Each year for which we have been responsible has been marked by some great and beneficent event which has commanded the acquiescence—­or at least silenced the dissent—­of many of our professed opponents.  In 1906 the charter of trade unions; in 1907, the conciliation and settlement of South Africa; in 1908, the establishment of old-age pensions.  These are large matters; they will take their place in the history book; and on them alone, if necessary, I would confidently base the claims of his Majesty’s Government to respect, if not to renown, in future times.

But although we do not meet to-night in any atmosphere of crisis, nor in any expectation of a general election, nevertheless I feel, and I dare say you feel too, that we have reached a climacteric in the life of this Parliament.  The next six months will probably determine the whole remaining fortunes of the Government, and decide whether a gradual but progressive decline will slowly carry the Administration in the natural course to the grave where so many others are peacefully slumbering, or whether, deriving fresh vigour from its exertions, it will march forward conquering and to conquer.

I said a few minutes ago that this session had been marked by a measure of great and cardinal importance.  Surely no one will deny the magnitude and significance of the step which has been taken in the establishment of a system of old-age pensions.  It marks the assertion in our social system of an entirely new principle in regard to poverty, and that principle, once asserted, cannot possibly be confined within its existing limits.  Old-age pensions will carry us all a very long way.  They have opened a door which will not soon or easily be closed.  The members of both Houses of Parliament have been led to the verge of the cruel abyss of poverty, and have been in solemn session assembled to contemplate its depths and its gloom.  All alike have come to gaze; none have remained unmoved.  There are some distinguished and eminent men, men whose power and experience I cannot impugn, who have started back appalled by what they have seen, and whose only idea is to slam the door on the grim and painful prospect which has been revealed to their eyes.