THE Liberal Party, looking round in desperation for a policy that may save it from extinction even at the eleventh hour, is being urged by various correspondents of the Manchester Guardian to pledge itself to Prohibition. From the point of view of political tactics, there is doubtless much to be said for this advice. An anti-liquor campaign would probably win back the Puritan votes that at the last election were given either to Labour or to Conservatism. . . It will be one of the greatest ironies of history if the Liberal Party, after having been riven by the indecisions of Mr. Asquith and the vagaries of Mr. Lloyd George, should endeavour to regain authority by pledging itself to this blatant example of class tyranny. The future is indeed so dark for Liberalism that any policy that promises votes must be attractive. The Liberal members in the House of Commons would not quite fill a motor omnibus, but even in the scanty remnant of what was once a great party there is violent disagreement. No sooner had Mr. Asquith delivered a suave speech and departed for Egypt than Captain Wedgwood Benn, one of the ablest of the younger members, wrote to the Press declaring that he would never accept Mr. Lloyd George as his leader. Captain Benn probably speaks for abut half the occupants of the motor-’bus. His blunt declaration has made Mr. Garvin very angry and the British Weekly very sorrowful. It merely emphasizes the obvious fact that the Liberal Party is destined to absorption, half by Labour and half by Conservatism.

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