The very high level of the debate was fully maintained
on Thursday, when Lord Balfour of Burleigh delivered a speech which deeply impressed his audience, not only by its eloquence and sincerity, but by the weight of its arguments. Lord Balfour began his speech by an exceedingly damaging criticism of the Finance Bill. The Bill was bad, but the temper of the speeches of many of its advocates could best be described as " rhetorical rotten eggs." " We are asked for the first time to look at the origin of property. We are asked almost in the very words to levy a fine on those who are
wicked enough to possess land of any kind." Turning to the land clauses, Lord Balfour, who is an admitted expert on the whole subject, pointed out that there were twelve different kinds of values dealt with in the Bill, including "increment value, site value, principal value, gross value, full site value, total value, assessable site value, value for agricultural purposes, original site value, and original total value." Some of the expressions were defined, some were not. One of them was defined and never used again in any other part of the Bill. Site value in Clause II. had a different meaning from site value in Clauses XXV. and XXVII.
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