Produced by Jeannie Howse, Thierry Alberto and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net * * * * * +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Please note that hyphenation is treated inconsistently | | in the original document. | | | | A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected | | in this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of | | this document. | | | | The reader should note that the spelling 'Doomsday-book' | | on page 333 duplicates the source image. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+ * * * * * LIBERALISM AND THE SOCIAL PROBLEM BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL M.P. SECOND EDITION HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON MCMIX PREFACE These are the principal speeches I have made within the last four years. They have been chosen and collected with the idea of presenting a consistent and simultaneous view of the general field of British politics in an hour of fateful decision. I have exercised full freedom in compression and in verbal correction necessary to make them easier to read. Facts and figures have been, where necessary, revised, ephemeral matter eliminated, and epithets here and there reconsidered. But opinions and arguments are unaltered; they are hereby confirmed, and I press them earnestly and insistently upon the public. We approach what is not merely a party crisis but a national climacteric. Never did a great people enter upon a period of trial and choice with more sincere and disinterested desire to know the truth and to do justice in their generation. I believe they will succeed. WINSTON S. CHURCHILL. 33 ECCLESTON SQUARE. _October 26, 1909._ CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE vii INTRODUCTION xiii I THE RECORD OF THE GOVERNMENT THE CONCILIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA 3 THE TRANSVAAL CONSTITUTION 16 THE ORANGE FREE STATE CONSTITUTION 45 LIBERALISM AND SOCIALISM 67 IMPERIAL PREFERENCE--I. 85 IMPERIAL PREFERENCE--II. 106 THE HOUSE OF LORDS 124