r the invalidity of the
bread-winner, the frail boat in which the fortunes of the family are
embarked founders, and the women and children are left to struggle
helplessly on the dark waters of a friendless world. I believe it is
well within our power now, before this Parliament is over, to
establish vast and broad throughout the land a mighty system of
national insurance which will nourish in its bosom all worthy existing
agencies and will embrace in its scope all sorts and conditions of
men.

I think it is not untrue to say that in these years we are passing
through a decisive period in the history of our country. The wonderful
century which followed the Battle of Waterloo and the downfall of the
Napoleonic domination, which secured to this small island so long and
so resplendent a reign, has come to an end. We have arrived at a new
time. Let us realise it. And with that new time strange methods, huge
forces, larger combinations--a Titanic world--have sprung up around
us. The foundations of our power are changing. To stand still would be
to fall; to fall would be to perish. We must go forward. We will go
forward. We will go forward into a way of life more earnestly viewed,
more scientifically organised, more consciously national than any we
have known. Thus alone shall we be able to sustain and to renew
through the generations which are to come, the fame and the power of
the British race.

LAND AND INCOME TAXES IN THE BUDGET

EDINBURGH, _July 17, 1909_

(From _The Times_, by permission.)

We are often assured by sagacious persons that the civilisation of
modern States is largely based upon respect for the rights of private
property. If that be true, it is also true that such respect cannot be
secured, and ought not, indeed, to be expected, unless property is
associated in the minds of the great mass of the people with ideas of
justice and of reason.

It is, therefore, of the first importance to the country--to any
country--that there should be vigilant and persistent efforts to
prevent abuses, to distribute the public burdens fairly among all
classes, and to establish good laws governing the methods by which
wealth may be acquired. The best way to make private property secure
and respected is to bring the processes by which it is gained into
harmony with the general interests of the public. When and where
property is associated with the idea of reward for services rendered,
with the idea of recompense