Review of Reviews, U3f 13. PROGRESS OF THE WORLD. 



17 



cashire at the time, and noted the de- 

 spair of local Unionists when their 

 leaders stated that tariff reform was to 

 be the ftrst plank of their platform. 

 The Northern Unionists will never stand 

 it, they declared, nor have they. The 

 Bolton election called an imperative 

 halt to the leaders, who appear to have 

 thought food taxes not onh^ necessar}' 

 but popular. For some weeks the party 

 was reft by dissensions, rumours of 

 Mr. Law's and Lord Lansdowne's re- 

 si'jnations were on every tongue, but 

 finally emerged a more or less united 

 company, which had definite!}- aban- 

 doned any idea of a tax on food stuff, 

 and professed unbounded confidence in 

 Mr. Bonar Law as leader. True, he is 

 now the onl}- possible head of the dis- 

 tracted part}", but the country can have 

 little faith in a man who so often would 

 and then he wouldn't. He himself told 

 a stor}- some time ago which only too 

 ironicall}' fits his own position now. " I 

 remember," said he, " hearing a man 

 who was seen following a band of rob- 

 bers, and was asked b}- a friend, ' Wh}' 

 are you following these men?' ' I must 

 follow them,' he said, ' I am their 

 leader.'" 



Austin Chamburlain Beaten. 



In a speech to his constituents — 

 manl}-, and even pathetic — Mr. Cham- 

 berlain confessed hmiself a beaten 

 man. Although he himself stood b}' 

 the old flag, he had to admit a wide- 

 spread movement throughout the coun- 

 try for the abandonment of food taxes. 

 This throwing overboard of any sug- 

 gestion of a duty on foodstuffs has 

 •practicall}' killed Preference. Tariff 

 reformers ha\e alwa}"s been pledged 

 not to put an}' dut}' on raw products 

 such as wool, cotton, iron ore, etc., 

 and now any scheme for taxing grain, 

 meat and other edibles has been 

 squashed. The}' can now onl}' advo- 

 cate a tariff on manufactured articles 



which the}' have admitted is in itself 

 of little value. If protection were 

 definitely out of tlie way, " not only 

 dead," as Beaconsfield said, " but 

 damned," the Unionist party's chances 

 at the next election should be brighter. 

 To judge from tlie b}'e-election at 

 Chorley, where the Tor}' majorit}' was 

 materially reduced, the electors do not 

 put over much faith in the declared 

 abandonment of taxes on food b}' the 

 Tory chiefs, and regard it merely as 

 a political move. One thing is certain, 

 with the millstone of tariff reform 

 round its neck, the Unionist part}' can 

 never hope to reach the liaven of office. 



The Insurance Act. 



The Insurance Act, which Mr. Bonar 

 Law declared could never come into 

 operation, has got well under weigh. 

 Last }'ear it was pa}', pay, pay, and 

 much dissatisfaction was expressed, 

 but this }'ear the benefits not only to 

 employees, but also to employers, are 

 already making the Act popular. Sel- 

 dom has any measure been subjected 

 to such fierce criticism and gross mis- 

 representation, but Mr. Llo}'d George 

 sat tight, and won through. Everyone 

 who has studied the Act realised that 

 directl}' the benefits began to be ex- 

 perienced, the opposition clamour 

 against it would collapse like a pricked 

 bubble. Xo fewer than 14,000,000 per- 

 sons are insured under the Act. The 

 cost to the State this }'ear is about 

 /"4, 000, 000, tlie workers and emplo}ers 

 between them paying ^^14, 000, 000. 

 The opposition of the doctors has been 

 overcome. To secure their co-opera- 

 tion V as another remarkable achie\"e- 

 ment of the Chancellor of the Ex- 

 chequer, whose reputation as a con- 

 ciliator was unique when at the Board 

 of Trade. 



Home Rule for Ireland. 



The third reading of this much-dis- 

 cussed measure, passed the House of 



