abstention of a considerable number of Sir Henry CampbellBannerman's nominal followers. Any other result would have been disappointing, as the Home Office seems to have drafted a thoroughly workmanlike and sensible measure, which Ministers should have little difficulty in placing on the Statute Book, provided they are firm in resisting wrecking amendments. The principles of Mr. Akers Douglas's Bill are elementary. It recognises that whatever may be the exact legal status of the publican, his licence, on which he pays rates, taxes, and death duties, must in equity be regarded as property when he is dispossessed on public grounds. So while the penalties for misconduct remain untouched, it is provided that when the renewal of a licence is refused upon public grounds, and there is no misconduct, the licensee shall receive compensation estimated on the same basis as the Death Duties, to be paid by a graduated tax levied upon all public houses in the district. In other words, compensation to the individual trader is provided by the trade. It is calculated that the Compensation Fund will amount to about a million pounds a year. The other principal change proposed is the transfer of the licensing jurisdiction to the Quarter Sessions-a point upon which the Radicals profess to be able to make a great deal of popolar capital, though judging from the general tone of their articles and speeches since the introduction of the Bill, it is likely to be added to the museum of disappointments they have already collected this Session.

The Home Secretary is also responsible for the other principal Ministerial Measure, viz., the Aliens Bill, which

Bill.

The Aliens deals with a disagreeable problem in a thoroughgoing manner; but as the past record of the Government on this question is one of promises unfulfilled it is only natural that many Ministerialists should regard the present Bill as a mere placard which will disappear on the first convenient pretext. We hope, however, that this time the Cabinet mean business. In introducing his Bill on March 29, Mr. Akers-Douglas explained that it was in no sense directed against foreigners qua foreigners, and that no interference with their general right of entry was contemplated. It was not the alien, but the undesirable alien, whom they had in view, and whose increasing invasion called for remedial legislation. These unwelcome visitors congregated in four or five centres, where they aggravated the evils of overcrowding and competition, and were a positive danger to the public peace owing to the intense hostility they aroused among the native population. That they did not make the best

citizens was shown by the increase in the number of aliens charged with and convicted of crime; and the Home Office had received representations from London police magistrates, chairmen of quarter sessions, the Recorder, and even from the Judges, as to the very serious expense inflicted on the country by the maintenance of a large alien prison population. On all these grounds the Government were of opinion that the interference of the State was urgently required, hence the introduction of the present Bill, which was based on the recommendations of the Royal Commission which had recently investigated the entire question and had reported last year. Under the Bill the Secretary of State would, in consultation with the Board of Trade and the Local Government Board, be empowered to supervise alien immigration. Aliens would be questioned as to their character and antecedents, as also upon their proposed place of residence, and they would be required to notify any change of residence within two years of their last entry into this country. Under certain conditions particularised in the Bill they could be detained, and where necessary returned to their own countries, the following classes being liable to be prohibited from landing:

Persons who within five years have been convicted in any foreign country of an "extradition" crime, prostitutes or persons living on its proceeds, persons likely to become a charge upon public funds, persons having no visible or probable means of support, persons of notoriously bad character, persons suffering from any infectious or loathsome disease, and persons refusing to give the prescribed information with regard to their port of origin.

All such cases would be carefully considered by the Secretary of State, who could make an order confirming the prohibition to land, or requiring the alien to leave the United Kingdom within. a fixed time, or giving him permission to land on terms. Finally aliens convicted on indictment of felony or misdemeanour and sentenced to penal servitude or imprisonment without the option of a fine, or aliens convicted by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction of an offence punishable by imprisonment of three months or more without the option of a fine, may, as part of the sentence, be ordered by the Court to leave the United Kingdom on their release from prison, failing which they would be proceeded against under the Vagrancy Act of 1824. The Opposition intended to challenge the first reading of this Bill, as has become their practice with regard to every Ministerial measure; but more prudent counsels prevailed, and Sir Charles Dilke was put up to make a speech of the "willing to wound but afraid to strike" order. He professed to believe that "great sculptors," and "the greatest scientific men," would be turned back from our shores.

But it is upon the right of asylum for political refugees that the Opposition intend to concentrate their attack as appeared during the Second Reading debate on which they were divided and hopelessly beaten. As we believe that our first duty is to our own people, we would far sooner sacrifice the so-called right of asylum, which in the eyes of many foreign governments means that England is to be the happy hunting-ground of foreign anarchists and assassins, than perpetuate the evils exposed in the Report of the Royal Commission. The only serious criticism made on the Bill so far is as to the absence of penalties to be imposed on vessels importing undesirable aliens, which other nations such as the United States have found a necessary part of any practical restriction on alien immigration.

The Pro-Lama.

Apart from the introduction of the Budget and the principal Ministerial measures mentioned in the King's Speech, Parliamentary proceedings have not been particularly interesting, though several announcements from the Treasury Bench are worthy of note. Although there has been no general discussion of Army Reform, there have been indications that Army Reform is "in the air," e.g., Mr. Balfour's statement that a Permanent Bureau would be attached to the Council of National Defence, Mr. Arnold-Forster's announcement that the construction of barracks upon Salisbury Plain and elsewhere had been suspended, and that the Army Corps system had been abandoned. One statement which has caused some curiosity was the curt declaration that the Government had decided to discontinue military operations in Somaliland, ostensibly on the ground that the so-called "mad" Mullah has vanished into Italian territory, but it has not yet been made clear whether the decision is due to his having been "smashed" or to the tardy realisation that his smashing is not worth the effort it would require. Three millions sterling have been invested in this enterprise. Doubtless these various questions will be discussed in due course. Perhaps the most important miscellaneous debate was in connection with Colonel Younghusband's mission to Tibet, which has already surmounted climatic and geographical difficulties of a unique character. In moving a resolution authorising the payment of its expenses from Indian revenues, Mr. Brodrick reiterated the pacific character of this enterprise, in which he was confirmed by Mr. Balfour, who declared that the annexation of Tibet would be "a great misfortune" to the already overburdened Indian Government. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman intervened with a speech which has

earned for him and his friends the witty title (invented by the Daily Mail) of "Pro-Lama," which is likely to stick to the ex-ProBoer party. He denounced Lord Curzon very much as he is wont to denounce Lord Milner, and as he would invariably denounce any great public servant doing his duty to the nation. But although the opportunity of showing sympathy with "the other side" was irresistible, the Leader of the Opposition's courage oozed out of his finger-tips when it came to voting, and he concluded an emphatic protest by running away from the division lobby.

The Compatriots'

Club.

While the ostriches of the Opposition are burying their heads in the sand and beguiling themselves with the suggestion that the Tariff Reform Movement is dead, its warier members, such as Mr. Haldane, know otherwise. As he told a Radical audience at Rochester, they "must not be under any delusion. . . . They were going to have that fiscal controversy raised again with the old intensity in the months that were to come, and it would require all their vigilance and all their strength to beat the enemy." It so happens that the return of Mr. Chamberlain, who our readers will be delighted to know is in the best of health and spirits, and if possible more devoted than ever to the great cause of Imperial Consolidation for which he has already made such sacrifices, coincides with a development which augurs well for Fiscal Reform. One of Mr. Chamberlain's first acts on his return from abroad was to associate himself with the Compatriots' Club (to give it its provisional name), which had just been formed "to advance the ideal of a united British Empire, and to advocate consistently those principles of constructive policy on all constitutional, economic, defensive and educational questions which will help towards the fulfilment of that ideal." This Club held a meeting on April 22, at which Mr. J. L. Garvin's essay, "The Principle of Constructive Economics," was considered, Mr. Chamberlain contributing a remarkable review of the position to the discussion. We are so fortunate as to be able to present our readers with Mr. Garvin's paper, in the form of a Special Supplement, and if the Club is able to maintain the high standard set by the writer,

*The Club has arranged the following series of lectures on Imperial topics at the Westminster Palace Hotel on Thursday afternoons in May and June:May 5, at 4.30, Dr. Cunningham, of Trinity College, Cambridge, on "Present Economic Conditions"; May 12, at 4.30, Sir Vincent Caillard on "Imperia! Preference and the Cost of Food"; May 19, at 5, Professor Ashley, of Birming

it should render incalculable service to the Imperial cause. It has been a matter of some comment that those who call themselves Free Traders have throughout this controversy steadily ignored all the best work on the other side, and have confined themselves to abusing Mr. Chamberlain. If there be a case for Free Imports, there must be some serious answer to Mr. Garvin. We cordially invite our Free Trader contemporaries to raise the boycott and to deal with his political or economic arguments—if they can. The following are understood to be the leading champions of the existing regime :

The Standard,

The Daily Chronicle,

The Daily News,

The Westminster Gazette,

The Spectator,

The Manchester Guardian,

The Glasgow Herald.

ham University, on "Political Economy and the Tariff Problem." On subsequent dates, Sir John Cockburn on "The Evolution of the Empire"; Mr. H. W. Wilson on "Imperial Defence." Further information and tickets may be obtained from the Hon. M. Ridley, M.P., 36 Portland Place, W.