imum since the South African war. Certainly the working classes
have no reason to complain. Nothing in the Budget touches the
physical efficiency and energy of labour. Nothing in it touches the
economy of the cottage home. Middle-class people with between L300 and
L2,000 a year are not affected in any considerable degree, except by
the estate duties, and in that not to a large extent, while in some
cases they are distinctly benefited in the general way of taxation.
The very rich are not singled out for peculiar, special, or invidious
forms of imposition.

The chief burden of the increase of taxation is placed upon the main
body of the wealthy classes in this country, a class which in number
and in wealth is much greater than in any other equal community, if
not, indeed, in any other modern State in the whole world; and that is
a class which, in opportunities of pleasure, in all the amenities of
life, and in freedom from penalties, obligations, and dangers, is more
fortunate than any other equally numerous class of citizens in any age
or in any country. That class has more to gain than any other class of
his Majesty's subjects from dwelling amid a healthy and contented
people, and in a safely guarded land.

I do not agree with the Leader of the Opposition, that they will meet
the charges which are placed upon them for the needs of this year by
evasion and fraud, and by cutting down the charities which their good
feelings have prompted them to dispense. The man who proposes to meet
taxation by cutting down his charities, is not the sort of man who is
likely to find any very extensive source of economy in the charities
which he has hitherto given. As for evasion, I hope the right hon.
gentleman and his supporters underrate the public spirit which
animates a proportion at any rate of the class which would be most
notably affected by the present taxation. And there is for their
consolation one great assurance which is worth much more to them than
a few millions, more or less, of taxation. It is this--that we are
this year taking all that we are likely to need for the policy which
is now placed before the country, and which will absorb the energies
of this Parliament. And, so far as this Parliament is concerned, it is
extremely unlikely, in the absence of a national calamity, that any
further demand will be made upon them, or that the shifting and vague
shadows of another impending Budget will darken the prospects of
improv