GEORGE 



3484 



Vandyk 



and in April, 1890, the young 

 solicitor of 27 took his seat in the 

 House of Commons. He did not 

 make any immediate mark, though 

 he spoke frequently ; indeed, his 

 opportunity to show what a fighter 

 he was did not come until 1895, 

 when a Conservative government 

 replaced a Liberal one. He had, in 

 pressing for Welsh Disestablish- 

 ment, shown pertinacity and pluck, 

 even venturing to stand up to 

 Gladstone ; but it was only when 

 he found himself in opposition to 

 the Conservatives, and especially 

 to Joseph Chamberlain, that his 

 fighting qualities developed. 



Thinking that the Boers of the 

 Transvaal and Orange Free State 

 were being unjustly treated, Lloyd 

 George pleaded their cause during 

 the South African War. By 

 this time Chamberlain had been 

 forced to regard him as a danger- 

 ous opponent, one who dared every- 

 thing, as, for example, when he 

 tried to address an anti-war meet- 

 ing in Birmingham itself The 

 meeting was broken up, the hall 

 wrecked, and LloyS George was 

 compelled to leave the building in 



a police constable's uniform. He 

 continued all the same to declare 

 the war unjustified, and in the end 

 his courage increased public respect 

 for him. There was no outcry 

 against Lloyd George's appoint- 

 ment to be president of the board 

 of trade, in Dec., 1905, when Sir H. 

 Campbell-Bannerman formed his 

 Liberal ministry. In that office 

 he showed good qualities as an 

 administrator, threw over the 

 ministerial tradition of aloofness 

 and superiority, and won golden 

 opinions by his accessibility. 



Lloyd George handled the great 

 railway dispute of 1907, and the 

 trouble in the cotton industry the 

 same year, with distinct success. 

 He had few temptations now to 

 make attacks, though he once and 

 again tiirned his power of invective 

 against the tariff reformers. He 

 seemed to be settling down into a 

 front bench politician of the usual 

 type, until a fresh phase of his 

 career was opened by his being 

 made, on April 12, 1908, chancellor 

 of the exchequer. 



He had now the opportunity 

 to effect some of the changes which 



GEORGE 



he had advocated so often in the 

 direction of greater social justice, 

 and in his f909 Budget he laid 

 before the House a number of pro- 

 posals for raising money. These 

 included taxation of land values, 

 taxation of coal royalties, fresh im- 

 posts upon land and alcohol, and 

 super-taxation of large incomes, 

 and were attacked with furious 

 vehemence by the land-owning 

 class and their representatives in 

 both Houses of Parliament. There 

 was also a great deal of general 

 middle-class feeling against them as 

 disturbing. Lloyd George answered 

 this by pleading the cause of the 

 poor, and holding up those who 

 complained to ridicule. A violent 

 speech at Limehouse, in which 

 he assailed his opponents with 

 particularly irritating effect, gave 

 rise to the expression " Lime- 

 housing," descriptive of his style 

 of oratory. In the country, as a 

 whole, the Budget was popular, 

 and the fight its author made for 

 it increased his power. 



When the House of Lords refused 

 to pass the measures connected with 

 the newtaxes,they were accused,ac- 

 cording to plan, of interfering with 

 a money bill, and the Government 

 successfully appealed to the coun- 

 try against what he called "that 

 sinister assembly." The Liberals 

 were returned to power, and the 

 scheme for depriving the House of 

 Lords of its right to veto legislation 

 was carried into effect in 1911. 

 His next piece of legislation was the 

 National Insurance Act, modelled 

 on the German plan. In spite of its 

 promise of " 9d. for 4d.," this 

 never appealed strongly to the 

 mass of people. He forced it 

 through, however, in the face of 

 determined opposition. 



Then came the Great War. 

 Deep as was his hatred of violence 

 between nations, he showed at 

 once that he could see nothing for 

 it but to fight until the Germans 

 had been taught that powerful 

 empires have no right to crush 

 small nationalities. At once he set 

 himself, with the help of the lead- 

 ing financial and business brains, 

 to devise means of providing the 

 money required. Early in 1915 he 

 left this to Reginald McKenna, and 

 turned his immense energy to the 

 task of supplying the army with 

 munitions. Here and at the War 

 Office, whither he went in July, 

 1916, he did most valuable service, 

 and it was by his speeches also 

 that the nation and its Allies were 

 more heartened and encouraged 

 than by those of any other public 

 man. There was no surprise, there- 

 fore, when at the end of 1916 he 

 was called to take Asquith's place 

 as prime minister. 



