ABSTRACT
The supreme duty will be to make the lives of the people, in town and country, more human, more worthy of the instincts of a free and patriotic nation.”F. A. Channing, M.P., exhorts the East Northants Liberal Association’s Annual Meeting, April 13, 1904. The 1904 Session is a most difficult one to deal with satisfactorily except at a length that is impossible. The fear that Chamberlain was right, whatever the Radical gains at the next election, prompted much anxious search for a “Liberal” Premier under whom both Campbell-Bannerman and Rosebery could consent to serve without “loss of face”. The Licensing Bill, introduced by Government on April 20, 1904, became the subject of hot controversy from the very first. Government’s Sessional troubles were nearly over though two by-election results remained as possible sources of chagrin before prorogation came on August 15th.
