MR LLOYD GEORGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9810, 31 March 1910, Page 2

MR LLOYD GEORGE.

A FRENCH VIEW. In the last number of the " Revue des deux Mondes," M. Augustin Filon, a distinguished French publicist, sometime tutor to the late Prince Imperial, who has written much and most intelligently on English politics, deals with Mr Lloyd George in a long article, from which we, unfortunately, havo only room for a few excerpts (says the "Daily Telegraph" of January 13). After descriomg Mr Lloyd George's lirst visit to tiie house of Communis, when he camo to London in 18W4 to pass a law examination, and the interest awakened and the curiosity oxcited in his young Welsh breast, M. Filon says:— Was his curiosity mingled with a fair proportion of respect? I doubt it, and the reason will soon be plain. NovwtlielesH, he had beoii taught to venerate the name of Gladstone, and the object of this adoration, the Grand Old Man, the idol of the Welsh, his countrymen, was there, bet'oro him, Bitting on the Treasury bench in all his glory, and apparently in tho full vigour of life, although he was nearing his eightieth year. Ho listened to the Prime Minister's speech, and then witnessed a curious scene. A puny-look-iilg man, wlio was sitting m the corner farthest away from the Speaker, rosu, and, jumping upon the platform, walked along it, paying no attention to tho famous rod line that no orator who really respects the Constitution daros to pass. Ho looked as though he wore .about to fall upon the venerable Prime Minister and engage in a hand to hand fight with him. So passionate and audacious were his words, and so hard and swift tho blows he struck, that an impatient flush ol anger began to redden the marble whiteness of the oM man's face. From liis seat in the gallery the Welsh student followed the course of this stirring duel. Afterwards, when giving an account of hi.s impressions, he said, " I was angry with Lord Randolph Churchill for attacking Mr Gladstone, and I detested his doctrines, but I admired his courage." In the eyes of Mr Lloyd George (tho reader must have seen from the first line that he is the subject of tho article) courage has remained the essential quality for a oolitician. Ho would probably call it " audacity," if this word wore not already tho property of another statesman, who, in spite of his recent apolcgists, continues to enjoy a somewhat sinister fame. ATMOSPHERE OF CHILDHOOD. A humble shop and a vulgar atmosphere, purified and ennobled by deep j religious feeling—such was tho onvironment in which Mr Lloyd George grew up, and from which ho drew his virtues mid his vices. There he learned to regard as strangers and enemies the squire and the Church of England clergyman of the parish (a shepherd without a flock, or one, at all events, who only knew his sheep for shearing purposes), the temporal tyrant and the spiritual tyrant. There, too, he grew accustomed to the idea that property is only respectable where the landlord is respcctaolo also—that Naboth's vineyard, for instance, is sacred (Naboth being a poor man), whilst the estates of Ahab and Jczebol are common property. Is it surprising that tho child put this Biblical Socialism into practice by climbing tho walls of the squire's park to steal fruit and catch game? About this time the Franco-German War broke out. It is unnecessary for me to ask anybody questions in order to find out the judgment the child heard passed upon this subject in the cobbling minister's shop. It was God who was punishing, by moans of Protestant arms that France which had been spoilt by fortune and corrupted by success. War, indeed, was a thing detestable in itself; nevertheless, do wo not read in the Bible that God on more than one occasion made uso of His Lcvites in order to put to the sword, a whole population of _ unbelievers, old men, women and children, and when the deed was done, " He saw that it was good.' _ Tho Baptists of Llanystiundwy were inclined to believe that the war of 1870 was one of these cases. For this reason the future Chancellor of the Exchequer gave the name of Bismarck to the dog which used to be his companion and help on poaching expeditions; from that time dates the liking for tho Germans which has received such a noisy publicity and ;;ained. iiosh support during a certain memorable tour. This predilection is a constant cause of astonishment, as Mr Lloyd George is the least Teuton of men. His nature, moral and physical, all his affinities, the nature of his oraLorical softs, ins deficiencies and excesses, as well as his highest gilts, are more nearly akin to ours than to those of his friends across tho Rhine. FIRST EXPERIENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

It was on April 17, 1890, that this ne-v member took his seat for the first time. >\t the same time, like many other members of Parliament, ho_ tried his hand at journalism, and this attempt gives us the opportunity of seeing in a form, more- or loss sincere, but certainly very remarkablo, the impressions of a nowcomcr in Parliamentary surroundings. A local paper received these ' confidences" of Mr Lloyd George on his detnit. In its columns he placed the members, his colleagues, under four heads. Firstly, the snobs and uVones, who attend seldom, and do no work. For these people the House of Comix ons serves no other purpose but that of opening the doors of society _ to them. Then como the guinea-pigs, who make u.se of their position as members of Parliament to lend their names as labels for more or less dubious commercial enterprises. Thirdly, there are the men who have ambitions, professional politicians, who march forward to the capture of office, and think of nothing but their own success. Lastly, the servants of the public welfare, that is to say, Mr Lloyd Georgo and his friends. This classification shows na clearly in what spirit he entered the House. From that moment he was the. enemy of a Parliamentary system which lie identified with the capitalistic chases Two months after setting foot in Parliament lie made his maiden speech (June 17, 1800), which caused no great sensation in his immediate circle, but attracted considerable attention in the journalists' gallery. In tone and doctrine it contained the embryo of the Lloyd George of to-day. He compared the leaders of the Conservative party to cripples who happened to be the fashion at popular spectacles. Wliat was the point at issue? The compensation of publicans for the loss of their license. The young member for Carnarvon Borouah proposed to devote the available funds to education expenses. Thus he placed himself on the side of the Temperance reformers and the elnmpions of popular education. At the same, time he trampled under foot the rights of property. The objection wili bo raised against this that the Uconsp of a public-house is not property. I, in my turn, will ask why, if this-* license can he cancelled without compensation at any moment, is income tax paid on it And death dues? This excecdinyly simple objection ha.s- often been raised against Mr Lloyd George, and those who side with him. They have never taken it into consideration; they have j never answered it.

TILE TURNING POINT. Irish Homo Rule, whi?h for ten years bad paralysed the, political life of England unci brought about the destruction of the Liberal Party, gave birth to another Utopia, namely, Welsh Heme Rule, and Mr Llcyd George was the apostle of this dangerous cause. Lord Rosebery, whose slender majority was undermined by intrigues within the ranks even more than by threats of sault from without, was obliged to

make a- compact with the Welsh demands. A Bill for the Disestablishment of the Church of England in the Principality was introduced by Mr Asquith, at that time Horns Secretary. I have already said that Mr Lloyd George was not a man to accept partial or provisional progress. He fought hotly against tho law he had demanded with so high a hand, on the pretext that it contained clauses too favourable to the official Church of Wales; and that Church, which her own partisans were resigning themselves to seeing disappear, owed to Mr Lloyd George and his friends a new lease of life, which still holds good This moment was a turning point in his career. From that time forward he asked no more from Welsh patriotism than a, note sounded at the beginning or end of a speech: in fact, he became the statesman of Radical Nonconformity, the democrat with a religious bias, tho water-drinker who overturns the goblets in which champagne shines and foams, the upholder of peace at any price, who repeats in a different key the refrain of Bright and Cobdon, " All wars are bad, except wars of legitimate defence." . . . COMPARISON WITH MR CHAMBERLAIN. With the exception of talent, there is a great difference between the Lloyd Georgo of to-day, and the Chamberlain of 1885. Although the latter willingly allowed himself to be accused of State Socialism, because he thought that this accusation would add to his popularity, in reality he was anything rather than a Socialist, since his famous scheme embodied in the formula, " Three acres and a cow," tended not to the suppression of property, but to its division, as in France, in such a manner as to pl'ace it in the hands of the masses. Everything else is the dream of Mr Lloyd George, and the Budget of 1909 is the beginning of tho realisation of this dream. It consists.of the gradual confiscation of private property, for the benefit of the municipalities and local councils. Tho celebrated American Socialist who beans the same name as the Chancellor of the Exchequer has pointed out the legal method of arriving at the destruction of property, and tho mothod is painfully simple. It consists in weighing down landed property beneath a burden of taxes greater thin the revenue it From that moment, from the economic and financial point of view, it will be worth less than nothing, and a few privileged individuals alone will ho rich enough to keep it a little longer under these burdensome conditions, like a picture by an old rrrstor, a thoroughbred horse, or a diamond necklace. A REVOLUTIONARY POLITICIAN. Mr Lloyd George's Budget, without making any of the necessary distinctions, solved all these delicate questions brutallly, treated all profits as so many cases of robbery, and ended in the State of these profits which he declared to be illegitimate. Mr Lloyd George's Budget has been called a Socialistic Budget because it has begun the destruction of private property, a revolutionary Budget because it violates the Constitution by introducing into English legislation, in the shape of financial requirements, measures excluded from tho Statute Book by a negative vote of the House of Lords. It might have been added that it was an immoral and illogical Budget. If Mr Lloyd George's Budget is revolutionary, his speeches are even more so. I mean his speeches outbid© Parliament. He made one at Limehouse on Julv 30 last, another at Newcastle on October 9. If by tho side of these two is placed his harrangue at Swansea, d-livered on October 1, 1908, a very fine idea can be obtained of this Ministerial Tiibuno, of his doctrines and oratorical manners. In them one finds Mr Lloyd George insulting the " rich " in the style of a Hvde Park demagogue, tbrosteninfl! capital as probably no Finance Minister has done since the foundation of the modern State. To refuse to believe that his words in such cases carried him further than his thoughts would be to misunderstand this man, who is always master of his language, and is as sure of the effect he is prrd"ci' l g as Coquelin could be at culminating point of Ovrano. in the midst, of a theatre trembling with emotion.