the hardships be exposed to Parliament
and they will be considered in no spirit of prejudice or malice. Do
not, however, let us have attempts to represent that the tax which
involves an increase in the cost of production extinguishes the
profits of the industry. It does not necessarily affect the profits of
the industry; it is not a deduction from resultant profits; it is an
incident in the turnover. If there are hard cases and special
instances, we are prepared to meet them with the closest attention and
with a desire to avoid severity or anything like the appearance of
harsh treatment of individuals. But we decline to regard licences or
land on the same footing as ordinary property. Licences are not to be
regarded as ordinary private property, but as public property which
ought never to have been alienated from the State.

No one will deny that we are making very considerable proposals to
Parliament for the finance of the year; but the Conservative Party
have gravely compromised their power of resistance. Those who desire
to see armaments restricted to the minimum consistent with national
security, those who labour to combat the scares of war, and to show
how many alarms have no foundation,--those are not ill-situated, if
they choose to make criticisms on the scale and scope of the finance
required for the year's expenditure. But an Opposition that day after
day exposes the First Lord of the Admiralty and the Prime Minister to
a rain of questions and cross-questions, the only object of which, or
an important object of which, is to promote a feeling of insecurity,
involving demands for new expenditure of an almost indefinite
character, those who, like the right hon. Member for Dover,[16] hurry
to and fro in the land saying--or was it singing?--"We want eight, and
we won't wait"--they, at least, are not in the best position to tell
the taxpayer to call on some one else. Surely a reputation for
patriotism would be cheaply gained by clamouring for ships that are
not needed, to be paid for with money that is to come from other
people.

There is another set of arguments to which I should like to refer. We
have been long told that this Budget would reveal the bankruptcy of
free-trade finance, and the Leader of the Opposition, seeking from
time to time for a sound economic foothold in the fiscal quicksands in
which he is being engulfed, has endeavoured to rest the sole of his
foot on tariff for revenue. The adoption of a p