LANCINGS SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 1910. JOHN BULL'S VERDICT.

Free Lance, Volume X, Issue 499, 22 January 1910, Page 6

LANCINGS

SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 1910. JOHN BULL'S VERDICT.

/ ■ i Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, v Unawed by principle and unbribed by gain ; „ Here patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw , - Pledged to Religion, Liberty and Law.

What Will It Be? WELL, at the time of writing on Tuesday, it is wholly a matter of conjecture-—aided by the personal equation. With 89 seats settled—l 7 of them, by the way, uncontested—and 505 English, Scotch, and Welsh seats still undecided—apart ■ altogether from the Irish seats, the great nmjority of which are sure to retain the Nationalist label —the "Dominioai," in Tory glee, raises its .voice to remark: "One thing, howeye r, seems to be assured; that the country has damned 'the anost popular Budget of .modern times,' and has failed most handsomely to rise up and destroy the Peers." To. which it is only necessary to reply: "Don't whistle until you are out of the. wood." * * * On the other hand, the "Times," looking at events on the. other side, of the globe through its Liberal spyglass, is equally cock-sure. The elections so far, ..it says, "point to a very substantial Liberal victory." As both sides therefore appear to be equally confident, the man in the street, who .merely wants to get at the truth, will draw the natural and , pretty safe conclusion that things up till Tuesday were pretty much as they were. ~ Beyond it, all that can be said with positiveness is that the Unionists have gained some 10 or 11 seats, and that if they are going to sweep the country they will have to crack on much more steam. ■ * ■ .-..»• .'.■■• Out here in the over-sea dominions people, are not carried away by the Old Country party shibboleths. ■- The ' Colonial liberals, of course, want to '' see the effete House of Lords swept into the limbo of played-out institution®. It is an anachronism in this democratic age. But they are also anxious that John Bull shall take a

leaf out of Uncle Sam's book, and embark upon a policy of tairiff reform. What; is the use of Free Tirade to a country which is steadily losing its trade to countries that refuse any tariff reciprocity? '• ' • o e Join - Bull, in self-defence, miust fight hiss business rivals with, thedir own weapons. .If they erect hostile tariffs to his goods -there" is reason why. he should give free entry to theirs, thus lemafolinig them to. throttle his home industries and fill his towns with unemJPiloyted people. Unfortunately, however, it is the and not the Liberals, who have embraced the cause of tariff reform. Again, the sympathies of the colomies are with Ireland m her aspirations 'after Home .Rule, and Home Rule, of course, is the red nag that infuriates the Tory-Unionist bull every time. • * ■ • * But. in spite of the weakness- of the. Liberals on tariff reform', the public opinion of the free democracies over-seas will be emphatically in. their favour. We can't have everything at once.' Home Rule for Ireland and an end to the veto of- those hereditary law-givers, the Peers, will be a. pretty good march on the path of progress. Tariff reform must come in. time. 1 John Bull is being gradually educated up •to it by the logic of events. In the .meantime the "Dominion" may save itself some confusion by not whooping too soon.