Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/696

536 General History of Europe English manufacturers decided that they could compete with the world on a free-trade basis. First, all duties on grain (the Corn Laws) were abolished, and then, between 1852 and 1867, all navi- gation laws and protective duties were done away with. 963. Program of the Liberal Party (iQoe). The Conservatives or, as they had come to be called, the Unionists were (except for a short period) in power for twenty years, from 1886 to 1906, and interest in gen- eral reform seemed to have died out in England. But in 1906 a general election took place, and the Liberals, re- enforced by a new Labor party and the Irish National- ists, came into control of the House of Commons. A new period of reform then began which continued until it was interrupted by the outbreak of the World War in 1914. The parties in power agreed that something must be done to relieve the poverty in which it was found that a great part of the population lived. Bills were introduced providing help for those injured in factories and pen- sions for aged workmen no longer able to earn a livelihood ; for diminishing the evils of sweatshops, where people worked for shockingly low wages ; for securing work for the unemployed ; for providing meals for poor school children; and for properly housing the poverty-stricken and so getting rid of slums. 964. Lloyd George's War on Misery. In 1908 David Lloyd George became Chancellor of the Exchequer, in charge of the nation's finances. In April, 1909, Lloyd George made a famous speech in introducing his budget. "I am told," he said, "that no chancellor of the exchequer has ever been called on to impose LLOYD GEORGE