Excerpt from The Budget, Its Principles and Scope: A Speech Delivered to a Meeting of the Commercial Community of Glasgow, Sept. 10, 1909 I think the crisis in which this speech was delivered is one of this kind. It is of course painful to any one to have to put himself in Opposition to old friends and to a party with which he was long connected. As, however, the Liberal critics of the speech have all declared that it is wholly ineffectual and vapid, they have evidently sustained no damage by its delivery. I may notice, however, the allegation that I have suddenly left the Liberal Party. I think the fact would be more accurately stated if it was alleged that the Liberal Party had left me. They have gone ahead with alarming velocity: I, on the other hand, have proceeded perhaps too slowly. I am much where I was, they have shot far in advance. Still it is not I who have left them, but it is they who have left me behind. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.