secured, and the unity of the Empire achieved; but
nothing will induce him to say what he means by Tariff Reform. That is
a secret which remains locked in his own breast. He condemns our
Budget, he clamours for greater expenditure, and yet he puts forward
no alternative proposals by which the void in the public finances may
be made good. And as for his opinion about the House of Lords, he dare
not state his true opinion to-day upon that subject. I do not say that
there are not good reasons for Mr. Balfour's caution. It sometimes
happens that the politics of a Party become involved in such a queer
and awkward tangle that only a choice of evils is at the disposal of
its leader; and when the leader has to choose between sliding into a
bog on the one hand and jumping over a precipice on the other, some
measure of indulgence may be extended to him if he prefers to go on
marking time, and indicating the direction in which his followers are
to advance by a vague general gesture towards the distant horizon.

Whatever you may think about politics, you must at least, in justice
to his Majesty's Government, recognise that their position is
perfectly plain and clear. Some of you may say to me, "Your course,
your policy may be clear enough, but you are burdening wealth too
heavily by your taxes and by your speeches." Those shocking speeches!
"You are driving capital out of the country." Let us look at these
points one at a time. The capital wealth of Britain is increasing
rapidly. Sir Robert Giffen estimated some years ago that the addition
to the capital wealth of the nation was at least between two hundred
and three hundred millions a year. I notice that the paid-up capital
of registered companies alone, which was 1,013 millions sterling in
1893, has grown naturally and healthily to 2,123 millions sterling in
1908. And, most remarkable of all, the figures I shall submit to you,
the gross amount of income which comes under the view of the Treasury
Commissioners who are charged with the collection of income-tax, was
in the year 1898-9 762 millions, and it had risen from that figure to
980 millions sterling in the year 1908-9: that is to say, that it had
risen by 218 millions in the course of ten years.

From this, of course, a deduction has to be made for more efficient
methods of collection. This cannot be estimated exactly; but it
certainly accounts for much less than half the increase. Let us assume
that it is a half. The increa