NOTES 



Mr. Lloyd George, the Nation of Shopkeepers, and the Pied Piper of 

 Hamelin. 



The terrible but unproductive outbreak of war has inter- 

 rupted most of the developments which were proceeding in the 

 world before it happened. Perhaps this is just as well in the 

 case of many things ; but there are some movements which must 

 not be allowed to languish, and among these is the question 

 (which was receiving quite an unprecedented amount of atten- 

 tion in Britain early last year) of the position of science in this 

 country. The public was almost commencing to understand that 

 all is not well with science in Britain, and was even beginning 

 to think of applying some remedy. Among the efforts made 

 in this direction one of the most important was a step taken by 

 Sir Ronald Ross, as first described by him in the British 

 Medical Journal for the information of members of his pro- 

 fession. After consultation with distinguished Parliamentary 

 lawyers, he determined to petition Parliament for compensa- 

 tion for his work in connection with tropical medicine. This 

 petition was based upon the precedent of Edward Jenner, 

 who was given on two occasions in the early part of last 

 century a sum totalling thirty thousand pounds for his work 

 on vaccination. By the rules of procedure of the House of 

 Commons, monetary petitions cannot be considered by the 

 House unless they are first recommended by the Crown — which 

 means that such petitions must be allowed to proceed by the 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer. Accordingly, as he has said, 

 Sir Ronald Ross's petition was drawn up in proper form by the 

 lawyers, and was submitted in due course to Mr. Lloyd George 

 in November, 191 3. It gave a detailed account of his work, and 

 the Chancellor of the Exchequer was asked for his recommenda- 

 tion. In reply, Mr. Lloyd George's private secretary said that 

 "notwithstanding the precedents to which you refer, it is not 

 in accordance with modern usage for a petition of this character 

 to be recommended to the House of Commons by the Crown on 



315 



