Liberal Unionist Association. MEMORANDA. Vol. 7, 1899. PREPARED AND PUBLISHED BY THE LIBERAL UNIONIST ASSOCIATION, Vol. VII.-No. 1. JANUARY, 1899 MEMORANDA. "The Empire is advancing and must advance. The great "the Minister in the future days who will be able to render to you as good an account as I think we can render you to-day, "that we have used the force that is entrusted to us not "violently, not sentimentally, but with calm and courageous "calculation, for the advancement of the interests of the CONTENTS. MR. ASQUITH AT LOWESTOFT. Addressing a meeting at Lowestoft on December 1st, Mr. Asquith sketched another Radical programme. He said that :-- "There were a few points in which there was absolute "unity of opinion in the Liberal party. If and VOLUNTARY" when the country returned a Liberal majority SCHOOLS."with the power of carrying Liberal proposals "into law, there would be no duty more urgently incumbent upon them than to see that in the future the principle of "popular control, not in a shadowy and illusory form, but complete and thorough-going from the top to the bottom of our educational system, was carried out consistently in the case of every school throughout the length and breadth of TAXATION OF "the land. He conceived it would be CROUND RENTS. "the duty of a Liberal Government and majority to introduce some well-devised and carefully-considered "scheme by which those ground values might be compelled "to contribute their fair share to the cost of works of public WORKMEN'S "utility. Another thing which they were not COMPENSATION. "likely to get from a Conservative Government "was a complete settlement of the question of compensation "to injured workmen. Their last Act, instead of settling it, "had created a vast number of incongruities and inequali"ties. There could be no satisfactory settlement until the working classes as a whole were dealt with, instead of unjust discrimination being made between one industry OLD-ACE "and another. This brought him to the subject of "old-age pensions, regarding which he maintained "that the Government had given a pledge which they had "not fulfilled. It was impossible to deny that this was one "of the most urgent social problems. Whether by pensions "or by some other means the time had come when the "statesmanship of this country should attack the problem completely and directly, and remove the scandal and reproach of destitute old age from our midst.. RECISTRATION "They wanted for democratic work a democratic "machine. Our House of Commons "must be made a truly representative body by getting rid "of the elaborate network of restrictions and obstructions "by which access to the franchise was hindered. PENSIONS. REFORM. The period of qualification must be shortened until it became "what it should be-nothing more than a simple, rough"and-ready test that the person claiming the vote was in good faith and substantially connected with the constituency in which he claimed to vote. We must not only |