THE BISHOPS AND THE BUDGET.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 715, 14 January 1910, Page 3

THE BISHOPS AND THE BUDGET.

■' DB. GORE'S GEEAT -SPEECH. The following., description .'(taken < from the • 'well-knoivn 'Nonconformist paper "The. British'. Weekly") of 'two. speeches delivered by' bishops 'in the' House ofLords during the historio debate on the Budget will,be. read 1 with , interest-.. .. Some peculiar iotor&st , attaches to the action of the Bishop ' of ■; Bristol, v Dr. Browne, and the BLshop of Birmingham,' Dr. Goroi .The Bishop of, Bristol passionately supported Lord Lansdowno. He claimed that tho Bishops" knew, tho conditions, the needs, the., wiints,'. and .the demands of everyclass or - community better, than any other •. Peers. Ho could not .cbnoeive that the ■ proposals .in,A the vßudget. would - ameliorate .the; conditions of the' poor and /working .- aid "fie was quite-" clear .-himself—he/might -, be- very. wrong—that his. vote; shoold. 'be riven/for- making it, as isiire,,as. they could make it, that ■ those whom ..they trusted, but whom those who were against them;-would, not trust, / have i.lio chance to express ..their, opuuop distinctly." Dr. . Browno seoms to .have hesitated- to appear as a Tariff Beformer; He is- solicitous, that the poor- should be distinctly heard,, and.iwe .hope,,he..will enjoy, their- answer. . . . . ■ Dr.- Gore's speech was m a very differ-, ent vein. Xt wa9'on© 1 of the noblest ■ and bravest speeches''ever. , delivered :in the House .of Lords. ■ Considering . all the circumstances and remembering . especially that Dr. Gore is Bishop of : Birmingham, one cannot too .highly, praise, the- courage 'and the candour with which he uttered; himself. There was no balancing, no ambiguity, no provision: for.a retreat. "It was only because the Bill-was, in-the opinion of their lordships/revolutionary, and oppressive that this House would be justified -in taking the exceptional course which was He believed. that the. Government's Budget was neither revolutionary nor oppressive."/- There, had to be an immense additional.expenditure In social'reform, and .they would have to revise their views, as, to. tho relationship of private and public' expenditure, .arid of tho kind of; demands which the publio made on people's .incomes. Even- if- a kind.of depression settled on the upper strata of society, he ■ did not . think the industrial situation' would be worse if ; simultaneously, there settled down on the working classes . a sense , that the world was goine to be a better place to live iti. "Tho .Times," referring to the speech of the. Archbishop of York, says:—"The Bench of Bishops is to be congratulated upon the accession of a speaker so able and eloquent as the Archbishop of York, who commanded the attention .of the Honsfl," Dr. Lang voted in favour of the Budget,'