The year that lies before us must be a year of important finance.  No doubt that finance will be a subject of fierce and protracted discussion; but I shall certainly not exclude from my mind, in weighing the chances of social reform, that strong element of patriotism which is to be found among the more fortunate of our fellow-countrymen, and which has honourably distinguished them from the rich people of other countries I could name.

I have been dealing with three, and only three, of the evil causes which principally affect labour conditions in Great Britain at the present time.  Do not forget, however, as the Prime Minister has reminded us, how intimate is the co-relation of all social reforms, how vital it is to national health and security that we should maintain an adequate and independent population upon the land, and how unsatisfactory, in Scotland, at any rate, are the present conditions for small holdings.  Do not forget, either, how fatal to the social, moral, and political progress of British democracy is the curse of intemperance.  There is not a man or woman who lifts a voice and exerts an influence in support either of land or of temperance reform, who will not be doing something not only to alleviate the sufferings of the poor, but to stimulate the healthy advance of British prosperity.

But see how vast is the range of this question of unemployment with which we are confronted.  See now how intricate are its details and its perplexities; how foolish it would be to legislate in panic or haste; how vain it would be to trust to formulas and prejudices; how earnest must be the study; how patient and laborious the preparation; how scientific the spirit, how valiant the action, if that great and hideous evil of insecurity by which our industrial population are harassed is to be effectually diminished in our national life.  See now, also, what sort of politicians those are, whichever extreme of politics they may belong to, who tell you that they have an easy, simple, and unfailing remedy for such an evil.  What sort of unscrupulous and reckless adventurers they are who tell you that tariff reform, that a trumpery ten per cent. tariff on foreign manufactures, and a tax on wheat would enable them to provide “work for all.”  I was very glad to see that Mr. Balfour frankly and honestly dissociated himself, the other night at Dumfries, from the impudent political cheap-jacks who are touting the country on behalf of the Tory Party, by boldly declaring that tariff reform, or “fiscal reform,” as he prefers to call it, would be no remedy for unemployment or trade oscillations.

Now that Mr. Balfour has made that admission, for which we thank him, and for which we respect him, I will make one in my turn.  If tariff reform or protection, or fiscal reform, or whatever you choose to call it, is no remedy for unemployment—­and it is pretty clear from the experience of other countries who have adopted it on a large scale that it is not—­neither is free trade by itself a remedy for unemployment.  The evil lies deeper, the causes are more complex than any within the reach of import duties or of no import duties, and its treatment requires special measures of a social, not less than of an economic character which are going to carry us into altogether new and untrodden fields in British politics.