On Wednesday Mr. Austen Chamberlain moved, on behalf of the
Tariff Reformers, an amendment to the Address. Kr. Lloyd George, who closed the debate on behalf of the Government, filled a considerable part of his speech with rhetorical invective in regard to the black bread and horseflesh consumed by the Germans. We are bound to say that when we see the cause of Free-trade defended in the House of Commons by a passage such as that which follows, we cannot resist a feeling of physical nausea :—
"I call it black bread. (Hon. Members.—' Rye bread?) Is that not black ? (' No.') Is it not food ? Really hon. gentlemen opposite among their other defects are colour-blind. The Germans themselves call it blank bread, and that is how you order it. ('No.') What is its colour. then ? I should not have thought there was the slightest doubt about it. I have heard hon. gentle- men say it.is excellent stuff—for the workmen. (Laughter, and cries of 'No.') Well, I should like to know how much the hon. Member for Clapham consumes ? I should think he diets himself very strictly. (Laughter.) The hon. gentleman charged me with having said it was food we would not give to tramps. This was what I said about tramps. I said, Right hon. gentlemen say this black bread is excellent stuff, very nourishing, very palatable, exceedingly appetizing; but I said in Devonshire, Have you any tramps, and they said Yes. Then I said, The next time tramps come round give them some of that German black bread. Every time a tramp calls give him a chunk of it and you will get rid of him as if he were given rat poison. (Laughter.) That is all I said. (Laughter.) Let the hon. gentleman try it on a tramp, I mean a bona' -fide tramp, not those who go round public-houses for Tariff Reform, though I am not sure that it would not turn even them off. (Laughter)"
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