soo ENGLISH POLITICAL HISTORY 



aspects of the Bill were concerned, the attitude of the Opposition should be affected 

 by the discovery of its wide unpopularity. They had originally welcomed it in principle, 

 but they represented, for organised political purposes, a growing body of hostile criti- 

 cism as to details, and criticism which, in the circumstances, was becoming more and 

 more incompatible with parliamentary support. 



The result was decidedly unfortunate for a scheme which aimed at accomplishing 

 so important a work of social reform. The Government had its programme for 1912 



full, subject to the way being cleared by the Parliament Act, by the political 



necessity of proceeding with Home Rule and Welsh Disestablishment; 



and Mr. Lloyd George, whose influence on the parliamentary tactics of the 

 Coalition was now supreme, determined to force the Insurance Bill through before ion 

 ended. When the House of Commons resumed on October 24th Mr. Asquith carried a 

 time-table resolution for closuring the remainder of its stages; and by this drastic 

 method the Bill passed through Committee on November 2ist and was read a third 

 time on December 6th. Under such conditions the opportunity for effective Opposition 

 criticism and amendment was so limited that very little was possible, in spite of the 

 activity of Mr. W'orthington Evans and other Unionist members, and towards the end 

 it became a question whether the Unionist leaders would actually divide against the 

 third reading, a course to which they were openly challenged by Mr. Lloyd George. 

 Instead of this, an Opposition front bench amendment was moved by Mr. H. W. 

 Forster, proposing that the Bill should be postponed for further discussion, and this 

 was defeated by 320 to 223, the third reading then being carried in a division in which 

 the Opposition as a whole took no part, 21 members recording their votes against it. 

 On December nth the Bill was read a second time in the House of Lords, and after 

 various Government amendments had been inserted in Committee on December i4th 

 it was passed and received the Royal assent next day when Parliament was prorogued. 

 During all this time, both inside and outside Parliament, opinion as to the scheme 

 and its prospects had become more clearly crystallised. WTiile Mr. Lloyd George and 



his supporters proclaimed it to be the most beneficial reform ever conceived 

 discontent. ^ n ^ ne interest of the working-classes, and taunted the Opposition with 



attempting to destroy it, the Unionists dwelt on the injury done by forcing 

 through a measure which ought to have been more carefully considered before it became 

 law, and threw the responsibility on the Liberal party for everything that was objec- 

 tionable and unworkable in it. The by-elections showed that its unpopularity was 

 continually growing; and under the arrangement made in the Act that the Insurance 

 commissioners should during 1912 make regulations as to details, nobody knew yet 

 what procedure would be adopted to overcome countless points of difficulty which 

 under the Act itself remained quite unsettled. The medical profession, without whose 

 co-operation, so far as could be seen, the Act would not work at all, continued to refuse 

 it unless they were given better terms, to which Mr. Lloyd George was still unable 

 to agree; " passive resistance " was being organised on their behalf by the British 

 Medical Association, and threatened in various other directions. As time went on, 

 the muddle only grew worse, and when the Act came into effect in the autumn of 1912 

 most of its problems were still unsolved. 



As a measure of social reform indeed the Insurance Act was undoubtedly one which 

 ought to be of great value when in full operation; and, as usual in Great Britain, in 

 spite of general discontent, most people combined to carry the Act out. Speaking on 

 October 12, 1912, Mr. Lloyd George was able to boast that, whereas the original actuarial 

 calculations led to the expectation that 12 million stamps on the average would be 

 fixed to cards every week, this number had been regularly and continuously exceeded, 

 and had that week reached over 15 million. In spite of all objections and much talk 

 about resistance among employers and employed, though the benefits were not yet 

 forthcoming and complete uncertainty existed as to the action of the medical profession, 

 payment was being made for insuring between 13 and 14 millions of people against 

 sickness and 2\ millions against unemployment. As a piece of Liberal electioneering, 



