The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-27
RUPTURE NEAR IN
 BRITISH CABINET LlOyd-GeOrge Intimates Will
 lingness to Resign DOCUMENTS ARE LOST Valuable Records Sold as Waste Paper and Sent to the United
 States-Birrell Rendered
 Cambridge Chair
DOCUMENTS ARE LOST
By PAUL LAMBETH

By PAUL LAMBETH
 1 London, October 26.-(SpeciaL) L)-With the
 view of relieving Premier Asquith of the
 embarrassment which the new Hand re- form" movement within the liberal party l has caused the administration, David Lloyd-George, chancellor of the exchequer and the most commanding figure in the | parliamentary life of England today. has
 ntimated to his chief that he is willing to resign from the cabinet. It is most un- likely that Asquith will accept the offer. | If he does the liberal ministry will not last three weeks.
 The cabinet is close to an open rupture
 on the land question. Representatives of wealthy landowning interests have been intriguing to bring about the downfall of the chancellor. and while they have not
 succeeded so far. they have certainly
 placed him in a most untenable position.
 The premier supports him cordially. and
 Churchill lukewarmly. The rest of the
 ministry is almost solidly arrayed against
 his plans, With the report of the land in- vestisating committee. the crisis is cer-
 tain to be precipitated. And 1t would sur
 prise no one in England if the upshot of
 1t should be third party of our own, with
 David of Wales marshalling all the rad | icals on to Armageddon "to do battle for
 the Lord'-against the landlords. Should
 he take the plunge Loyd-George will command a very considerable following, but the house of commons would be una ble to pass any legislation of consequence
 for some time owing to the old confusions
 made more confounded by this latest and
 most serpent-toothed of issues.
 England has just awakened to the fact that through the careless way in
 which the imperial archives are superin- tended, many priceless manuscripts have been shipped to the United States after being sold in London as waste paper
 It Is estimated that the enormous num-
 Der of 100000 documents have been lost
 to Great Britain in this way.
 A British imperter at New York wrote
 recently to the war office that dealer in rare books and manuscripts had of fered him "an original document bear ing the signature of King of England, relating to his majesty's forces al Louis-
 burg, in North America. The dealer had 1 in his possession hundreds of these doc uments-almost a wagon load They consisted of war department papers of various kinds, bearing upon the distri-
 button and payment of his majesty's forces in different parts of the world, and hundreds of warship log books cov- ering many years from time long an- | terior the American revolutionary war down to the war of 1872" The war of flee promptly passed this information on to the foreign office, and the Brit
 ish consul in New York was cabled to
 inquire Into the matter. Finally it was discovered that the papers had been sent to the stationery office for destruction had been torn out of their covers and sold for waste paper. The rolls house contains mass of unindexed legal doc uments of dates which cover the work ing careers of Shakespeare and those
 associated with him. The neglected state
 of these documents has caused much dissatisfaction to Shakesperian students and the commission recommends that
 money should be granted for an exam
 ination and indexing of the records Recent occasional researches of private
 students the commissioners say, make
 It reasonable to anticipate that thor ough and systematic examination of
 these records will throw important light both on the social and literary history Of the Elizabethan and Jocobean period" 1t Is recommended that the master of the rolls should be relieved of his titu-
 lar headship of the record office; that a permanent commission should be ap- poiHteu loT US government, that more
 money should be spent on it; that all fees for searching the records. except for purely legal purposes. should be
 abolished, and that Welsh records should be transferred to Wales
 | The feeding in the wilderness" says tthe Rev. Dr. Headlam, principal of Kings college, Ifs miracle which will stand on It's own feet. The evidence in its support would be accepted in any properly constituted court of law"
 The gospel of St. John," in the opin-
 ion of this eminent theologian and
 scholar. was written by someone who
 either got his information from an eye
 witness or he was an eyewitness him
 self. Admitted that he was, or may
 have beeen consummate artist, he
 clearly did not invent the miracle of timony of St. John, a testimony which
 appears to be independent. as we'll as
 that of the other gospels. and it prob
 ably goes back to the very earliest days
 of Christian teaching.
 Augustine Birrell, chief secretary for Ireland and the most scholastic mem Der of the cabinet. has been asked to | fill the chair of English literature at Cambridge, which has been vacant since
 the death of Dr. Verral The honorsis one highly coveted. It was the original desire of the Cambridge faculty to se- cure the services of Ambassador Bryce. but the British diplomat at Washington | Is determined to retire from all offi-