The Progress of the World. 



23 



The 

 Nation Unmoved. 



Mr. Marconi 



Meantime, 

 so far as 

 seats are 

 concerned, 

 the Government emerges 

 from the electoral ordeal 

 unshaken. And this is its 

 crucial year, wherein its most 

 controverted measures are 

 being titcidcd. Mucii more 

 significant than the figures 

 of the polling are the issues 

 which the Unionists put for- 

 ward, or held back at the 

 various contests. Thev 

 seemed to have relied for 

 their attack chiefly upon the 

 temporary inconvenience and 

 bewilderment caused by the 

 introduction of the National 

 Insurance Act. On their own confession 

 they found Home Rule a dead issue. 

 Tariff Reform they prudently kept in the 

 background. So we have the curious 

 result : the impatient Tariff Reformers who 

 thrust Mr. Bonar Law into the leadership 

 now find their panacea relegated by elec- 

 tioneering exigencies to a very obscure 

 back sear. And the horrific prosj^ect of 

 Home Rule as in\olving the utter ruin of 

 the Empire leaves even Unionist electors 

 cold. 



The stability of the 

 (Jovernment has been 

 further strengthened by 

 its marvellous financial 

 record. That it had a surplus of six and a 

 half millions accumulated in the ordinary 

 course of ta.xation, wiiich could be kejn 

 several months in reserve for |)ossible 

 eventualities, was a fact which impressed 

 the world, and could not fail to produie 

 an efi'eci (Hi the essentiallv mercaiitde mind 





The Magic 



of 



Liberal Finance. 



( L nder:vi\'J. 



and the principal members of the Marconi Company 

 at the Works, Chelmsford. 



of the Englishman. Mr. Lloyd George's 

 final appropriation of the spare cash seems 

 to have deepened the impression. Half a 

 million is lent for the development of 

 Uganda. Only one million goes to the 

 Fleet as our answer to the new German 

 Navy Bill. Five millions are applied to 

 the reduction of debt. The Chancellor 

 took the opportunity to point out that in 

 seven years the present Government has 

 paid seventy-eight millions of^' the National 

 Debt. Yet this gigantic reduction has 

 been going on while naval expenditure and 

 expenditure on social reform have been 

 unprecedentedly vast. John Bull may he 

 by nature profoundly conservative, Init he 

 is still more ingrainedly a trader and a 

 business man. He will need much con- 

 vincing before he comes to the conclusion 

 that the fiscal svstem and ilic Govern- 

 ment which work such wontlers in 

 the realm of tl nance are not worthy of 

 support. 



