NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE chief event of the week has been the speech of Mr. Balfour at Birmingham, which has been almost universally accepted as indicating that the House of Lords will reject the Budget. Before dealing with it, however, we must notice the speech by the Prime Minister which preceded it. Mr. Asquith spoke at Birmingham on the night of Friday, September 17th. Though we do not of course agree with it, and though we admit that it con- tained no lofty flights of oratory, it was from many points of view a notable effort. If his arguments were unsound, there was at any rate no attempt made to inflame feeling, to rouse class prejudice, or to strike anything in the nature of a foul blow. In a word, it was a good example of the party speech. Mr. Asquith's main contention was that the so-called Land-taxes are not taxes upon land at all, but "taxes upon the added value due to social causes which at present pass untaxed into the pockets of the fortunate proprietors of a particular form of land." Mr. Asquith went on to declare that the distinctions made between land and other forms of property, far from being " the revolutionary paradoxes of latter-day Socialists," were of almost venerable antiquity. Mr., Asquith turned next to Lord Rosebery's indictment of the Inheritance-duties. It was unjust to describe the Government's intentions as those of men waging implacable war against capital. "Those taxes were very moderate in amount."
