The Haslingden Gazette. — 1909-12-11 (Haslingden, Lancashire, England)

FROM THE BUDGET PROTEST LEAGUE.)  POWDER AND SHOT.  Our synwatitieg ore extended. to Sir Henry Nor.  man, the organising genius of the Budget League, for the base ingratitude shown by the Radical Press in ignoring his really sensational scheme to rule the edges of their news pages blaok on the morning after the moving of the amendment. Per. hops, however, they were right in passAg over Sir Henry's advice. Radical readers alight hallo mistaken it for a symbol of the death of the Liberal party, . . . .  " If the elections give the Unionists a majority, it is all up with Free Trade: and, be it added, it is all up with German exports to Great Britain." This frank, wholesome statement does not come from any " prejudiced," "bigoted," etc., English Tariff Reform source. It appears this week in a well-known German Radical organ, the " Freisinnitre Zeitung." Lord Crewe makes the interesting discovery that in Northern Nigeria there exists a system of national ownership of land which is absolute perfection. The area of Northern Nigeria is nearly 256,000 square miles, and the population is numerically quite respectable, being no less than ten million dusky Commoners, without a single "Duke" among them. And what a place, too, would Northern Nigeria be for Budgets! No House of Lords to whisper caution: not a Dreadnought, nor even a torpedo boat to be built; and no unearned increment. Besides, what a splendid opening for death duties, as the Destroying Angel is always busy them. Northern Nigeria is a region that is enough to make any Radical-Socialist Chancellor of the Exchequer's mouth water. " Very remarkable" is the comment of the " Star " on the fact that among the abstainers from the Budget division of Peers "whose Unionism cannot be doubted" was Lord Dudley. Not so "very remarkable," after all, considering that the noble Earl happens at present to be attending to his business as Governor-General of the Aus. tralian Commonwealth. But why did this evening purveyor of Radical raw meat stop with Lord Dudley? Why did it not also note the " very remarkable" absence of Earl Grey, Governor-General of Canada: of Lord Selborne, High Commissioner of South Africa, and 'of Lord Minto, Viceroy of India. The Nonconformist Radical journals, ones so print and staid, have taken to publishing " scare" headlines that would wring admiration from the most wild-cat editors of the American yellow pre.. Here are a few of the lea.st lurid:—" Murder of the Budget," "350 Peers vote for suicide," "Tito Budget killed," etc., etc. Surely something must have " gone wrong with the works" when peaceful, law-abiding, chapel-going editors break out into this sort of delirium. Lloyd-George once said "For all our ills There's nothing like may Budget pills, There ne'or was such a cure." The sceptic standing by his side In startled wonder softly cried "You're getting worse than —." Onlookers ran find never-ending fun just now in the perusal of the various Radical prints. In one column the righteous scribe pours forth the vials of his wrath on the heads of the " revolutionary" peers wino dare to tamper with the Constitutional rights of the House of Commons. Probably in the next the bewildered, yet intensely amused, reader is treated to a fine show of scorn for "tire body which is bringing upon itself political destruction!" Shade of Tappertit! What else could the Lords have done in the circumstances? On the one hand they were bullied and threatened if they did not pass the Finance Bill into law, and on the other they were petitioned to reject the Budget that would mean unemployment and misery to countless thousands of their countrymen. What they did was to use " tbe happy mean," and to give the electorate an opportunity of choosing for themselves. Could anything be more truly democratic? • • •