uch are the proposals which we submit in regard to the organisation
section of this problem. I have carefully confined myself to that
section. I have not trespassed at all upon the other no less important
or scarcely less important branches, and I am quite certain this
Parliament will gladly devote whatever strength it possesses to
attempting to grapple with these hideous problems of social chaos,
which are marring the contentment and honour of our country, and
which, neglected, may fatally affect its life and its strength.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Mr. Ramsay MacDonald.

III

THE BUDGET

THE BUDGET RESOLUTIONS (May 4, 1909) 277

THE BUDGET AND NATIONAL INSURANCE (May 23, 1909) 297

THE LAND AND INCOME TAXES (July 17, 1909) 318

THE BUDGET AND THE LORDS (July 26, 1909) 344

THE SPIRIT OF THE BUDGET (Sept. 5, 1909) 357

THE BUDGET AND PROPERTY (Oct. 7, 1909) 384

THE CONSTITUTIONAL MENACE (Oct. 9, 1909) 405

THE BUDGET RESOLUTIONS

HOUSE OF COMMONS, _May 4, 1903_

The Leader of the Opposition this afternoon told us that we were at
the beginning of what would be a very complex and a very protracted
discussion. If that discussion continues as it has begun, the
Government will have no reason to complain of it. We have made
extensive and even daring proposals. Those proposals have been
accepted and, on the whole, even acclaimed by the public at large, and
they have not been substantially challenged in this House. The Leader
of the Opposition, it is true, devoted his reasoned and temperate
speech to making a careful inquiry into the foundations and the
character of certain of the taxes by which my right hon. friend
proposes to raise the revenue for the year; and I gathered he
accepted, with such reservations as are proper to all engaged in a
large discussion, and as are particularly appropriate to a Party
leader, the general principle of differentiation of taxation in regard
to the amount of property, but that he demurred to and condemned
differentiation in regard to the character of property. The right hon.
gentleman singled out for special censure and animadversion the two
sets of taxes in relation to land and to the licensed trade. He used
an expression about some of the forms of taxation proposed by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer which was a striking one. He said that
they diverged from t