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Great Britain and her Empire 537 such heavy taxes in a time of peace. This is a war budget. It is for raising money to wage implacable warfare against poverty and squalidness. I cannot help hoping and believing that before this generation has passed away we shall have advanced a great step towards that good time when poverty and wretchedness and human degradation, which always follow in its camp, will be as remote to the people of this country as the wolves which once infested its forests." 1 965. The House of Lords Humbled. The budget advocated by Lloyd George passed the House of Commons, but was rejected by the indignant House of Lords. Parliament was dissolved and a new election held to show that the voters were on the side of the ministry. Then the Lords yielded ; but the Liberals had been so exasperated at their opposition that, by the Parliament Act of 1911, they took away the power of the Lords to interfere seri- ously in future with the will of the people as expressed in the elections. III. THE IRISH QUESTION 966. The English in Ireland. Among the most serious prob- lems that have' constantly agitated Parliament during the past century is the Irish question. As early as the time of Henry II (1154-1189) Ireland began to be invaded by the English, who seized lands from which they enjoyed the revenue. The Irish revolted under Elizabeth and again under Cromwell. They were cruelly punished, and more estates were confiscated. In 1688 the Irish sided with the Catholic king, James II, and were again subdued and more land was taken. 967. Absentee Landlords. Now the English landlords, to whom these estates were given, and their descendants, for the most part, lived in England. In the nineteenth century millions of 1 It should be noticed that Lloyd George and his supporters, before imposing taxes, not only asked how much a man had but how he got his income. Those who worked their lands or conducted mines or factories were to be treated with more consideration than those who owed their incomes to the efforts of others. In this way Lloyd George intro- duced a new principle of taxation, which was vigorously denounced by the Conservatives as revolutionary and socialistic.