PREFACE xvii 



ing crazes. A non-political Budget, prepared and ex- 

 plained by fiscal experts, would be a welcome change 

 from the parliamentary muddling of the past twelve 

 months. A very brief experience of it would make 

 people wonder how they could ever have left the 

 finances of the Empire at the mercy of voluble talkers 

 without a shred of practical experience. If they are to 

 be saved from increasing chaos they will have at no 

 distant date to be put under proper guardianship. And 

 if the taxpayer is to be delivered from the tyranny of 

 ignorant and inconsiderate taxation he must have an 

 appeal from official caprice to independent and impartial 

 tribunals." 



TAKING THE BUDGET OUT OF POLITICS 



" In short, it might in due time deliver our financial 

 and fiscal policies from political amateurs and put them 

 in charge of trained administrators. This is an ideal 

 toward which the principal nations of the world are 

 half-consciously advancing. To take the Budget and 

 the tariff out of politics altogether is now the common 

 aim of German, French, and American statesmen. 

 Previous to Mr. Lloyd George's time that idea had not 

 taken shape in this country, but his Budget of 1909 

 has given it a great fillip. Business finance has got 

 to come. Taxation to the tune of 1 50 or 1 60 millions 

 sterling a year cannot go on much longer as a political 

 game, taking its chance among the ups and downs of 



