MANNERS IN POLITICS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13906, 3 December 1910, Page 8

MANNERS IN POLITICS.

Arguing on questions of taste is a rather profitless business, and we do not propose to repeat what we said tho other day about Mr Lloyd George's political manners, which we regard as unworthy of his position. Our correspondents who take exception to our remarks either think they are not unworthy, or plead provocation, and hero the matter had better stand. But we. would like to draw attention to the comments of London "Truth," which appeared in our cables yesterday. "Truth" condemns Mr Lloyd George's appeals to class prejudices. Now "Truth" is a staunchly Radical paper, with no liking for the Unionist Party or tho Peers, and we suggest to ( tho correspondents who have become so excited about our remarks tEat what this journal says we are fairly entitled to say. There are one or two other points in the letters to which we may allude. "Idealist" was very angry with us because he thinks we insulted the Celtic races in our reference to the Celtic temperament as the cause of Mr Lloyd George's exaggeration. "The old Saxon callousness dies hard" —to which we answer, "Rubbish." We do not require to be told of the value of the Celtic temperament in that medley of races that is called tho British nation, but it is as well known and generally accepted that that temperament makes for passion and exaggeration, as it js that the Englishman's reserve makes him hard to know and contributes to his unpopularity abroad, and that his unresponsive to new ideas is telling in international competition. The Englishman's failings have occupied a good deal more of our space than have the failings of the Celt. Mr G. Manning suggests that we are entirely guided by our "brief and highly-coloured "cables." That is not so; there are each things as English journals in colonial newspaper offices, and they are not all of one political colour. This correspondent also says that Mr Lloyd George has "never been compelled to " withdraw any facts which he has "stated." We fear that may mean little. If a man declared that all the land in London was owned by six people he would be stating what was untrue, but no one could compel him to withdraw the statement. We repeat that on several occasions statements made by Mr Lloyd George about the alleged sins of his opponents have been proved to be incorrect. We have given a good deal of space to appreciative articles on Mr Lloyd George, and last year in reviewing the work of the Liberals, we drew attention to the excellence of his work at the Board of' Trade. But we decline to believe that the way to cure tho many evils that afflict England is to abuse the wealthier classes and endeavour to excite the masses against them.