AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



/ have one explanation to offer. Throughout this book 

 I have endeavoured to avoid importing party bias into 

 any question under review. Holding no brief for either 

 party, I have not hesitated to state plainly what seemed to 

 me the halting action or the manifest ignorance displayed 

 by both parties alike on various occasions. It has been 

 pointed out to me by one or two friends, to whom [ have 

 xhown portions of tlw manuscript, that the use of the term 

 " Radical " as applied to one political party may be 

 offensive to some of my readers. The term is not so 

 intended., and it will be found that the expression is only 

 used ivhen reviewing the period commencing in 1906. f 

 may be wrong, but the impression conveyed to my mind by 

 event* is that the Liberal party retired from the stage in 

 1905, and that its heritage has since been entered on by a 

 party to which, as defined by the dictionary, the term, I 

 have used seems more appropriate. 



I could luish that this work had been entrusted to abler 

 hands than mine to some other who would have invested 

 the subject with greater interest than it ivas within my 

 capacity to supply. The book has been written at odd 

 moments, in the face of several difficulties, and under 

 pressure of time. If there be mistakes, 1 must plead the 

 foregoing in extenuation. I owe many thanks to Mr. E. C. 

 Lister- Kay, who has kindly read and corrected the 

 proofs, and to Mr. W. T. Chadwin, who has given me much 

 assistance and helped to prepare the index. 



A. H.H. M. 



