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Show GOVERNMENT ATTACKED BY THE LIBERAL LEADER LONDON. Feb. 16. In the House of Commons the debate on the address in reply to the speech from the throne was resumed by Mr. Asqulth (Liberal and former Home Secretary), who moved the following amendment: "We humbly represent to Tour Majesty that the various aspects of the fiscal question have been fully discussed In the country for nearly two years, and that the time ha come for aubmitting the question to the people without further fur-ther delay." Mr. Asqulth eiupported this demand for an Immediate dissolution of Parllnment. with some trenchant remarks on the wide fiscal gulf separating the I'r.lonlut factions. fac-tions. Turning to fremier lialfour, Mr. Aaqulth asked him to give a monosyllabic monosylla-bic answer whether there was any practical prac-tical difference between his and Joseph Chamberlain's fiscal policy, but the Premier Pre-mier remained el lent. The speaker then declared that Mr. Chamberlain was also becoming inoculated inoculat-ed with the "malaria of ambiguity." and added that this intolerable confusion, menacing and perilous to Industry and the Empire, could only be cleared up by a prompt and direct appeal to the people. peo-ple. Austen Chamberlain, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, replying, taunted the Liberals Lib-erals with asking the country for a mandate man-date to stimulate bounty-fed competition with British manufactures and to maintain main-tain a system of free Imports without a free exchange The opposition's policy, he added, was to shut Its eyes to all that was passing In the rest of the world snd cling to the ancestral traditions of sixty years ago. The Government desired a free hand to negotiate fiscal matters with foreign countries and the colonies, and an unfettered conference of the latter to see If a closer union could not be promoted pro-moted between Great Britain and the other parts of the Empire. Mr. Asquith's amendment to the reply to the speech from the throne was dla--cupsed at the evening session. Sir Edward Ed-ward Grey said that, next to a foundation founda-tion of force, a foundation of taxes was the weakest upon which an Empire could be built. The present suspense, he said, was bad both politically and ma"rlally. A moral obligation rested on the Government Govern-ment to appeal to tha country- |