The net result of the Government concessions up to date
is to add certainly half-a-million to the cost of their scheme, and probably a great deal more. Last week the estimated sum under the scheme had come to be admitted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to be seven and a half millions sterling. We have therefore, though only half-way through the Com- mittee stage, already reached a burden of at least eight millions sterling a year. It will be curious to see whether Mr. Lloyd George's suggestion of a compact against amendments further increasing the charge on the taxpayer will be observed. We fancy not. The general demeanour of the Government throughout the debates has been that of a group of sheep driven hither and thither in bleating confusion by two or three aggressive terriers. Under such conditions sheep sometimes run over a precipice. We really should not be surprised if that were to happen to the Government. We are amused to note that people are already beginning to talk about amendments in the House of Lords which will make the measure more just and workable. We trust, how- ever, that the Lords will, instead, postpone consideration of the Bill until after the Report of the Poor Law Commission. The Government have themselves told us that their measure
can only have a temporary shape till the recommendations of that Commission are known and discussed. This admission gives the House of Lords a right to refuse legislation, at any rate till the Commission has reported.
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