The Dominion. FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 1910. LIBERAL TRICK.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 721, 21 January 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 1910. LIBERAL TRICK.

.The cardinal vice of the second ballot system, as, quoting: from' ■- a multitude of ■ foreign authorities, we showed over and over again before .the .Second Ballot Act was passed in 1908, is the premium that it, puts upon'.trickery and • bargaining.- The contest for. the Hangitikei seat ..last year revealed : in all its glory this, evil of; this, system of voting, . for the Government openly .used: the interval between .the ballots to offer, brib.es, to the electors in the interest of the ..Ministerial candi- | date. In Britain, the, second ballot system is not'in operation, but the antiquated . election ■ arrangements, under, which almost every day for weeks is a polling day, somewhere or other, supply extraordinarily favourable conditions for tactical promises and political "deals"; of nearly cvory kind. One of the most remarkable of such "deals" is the sub-' ject of some interesting : and im-' portant cable messages in thig issue! We wero informed yesterday •. that the. Chief : Liberal Whip, Mr. J. A. Pease,..who is-also Secretary to the Treasury, had ■ pledged, himself to vote . against "Home Rule with an independent Executive." In a further speech,to the olectors of Saffron Walderi, wo' learn to-day, /he ' has, added to his personal pledgo an assurance that Me. • Asqujth, in.; his Albert Hall speech; "gave no pledge that Homo Rulo would bo-given to Ireland." , "What the Prime Minister said,"- ho went on, "was that the ban.which the Liberals had imposed upon- themselves'at the.last election removed,'and that Liberals word free, if they so desired, to extend self-government- to Ireland; - but everyone in. tho • Government was pl«d£;sd-,nofr to give the Irish an independent Parliament but self-gov-crnmont, consistent with union." It is perfectly obvious that Mel Pease, , acting . under instructions from tho Government, has made.his statement partly in. order to pacify Saffron Walden, but mainly: becauso the Government has;calculated,that the Nationaliat support can be balanced by the English and Scotch support' that can be gained if Home Rulo is disowned.

The, papers by iho last ' mail - unfortunately stop just ono day short of tho issues in which Mb. Asqttith's Albert Hall speech is reported. Tho cabled summary of the speech, howc Y el '> is sufficiently clear and r precise' for an understanding of tho situation created, by /Me. v Pease's ropndi- 1 ation, oil Mit. Asquith's behalf, of any promise to' grant Ireland its desires. ■ Tho cabled summary reads as follows:— ••• ■ ■; • •

n ,« still the one great failure of British, statesmanship. . Speaking onvb£ ° £ W colleagues, I now say the' only ■Solution. is .that .to be .found", iir a .system "}, self-govornmont in - purely .Irish ; affairs rra system which Ishall'-explioitly ,safeguard, the supreme.rauthbrity:of the ImS l I'arliament. -The-present Governroont. ;has. been unable to adventure ' on proposing this solution;' but the liberals' the'new PMliament' -will be 1 perfectly free." . ..v;"

Everybody must admit that this statement lends ? itself very readily to-such .an interpretation as Mr. Pease asks for.it, but there is hardly any statement which in not capable of more than one reading if quibbles and arriere pensees are granted-tho same validity, as: spirit and intention. The* British public has a right,' howover,;■to cxpect that'a'statcsman of the eminence of Mb. Asquith shall be above double entendres and slimncsses of this sorfr-that they, shall not .havo to analyso every statement he makes for concealed ; meanings different from the meaning that plain men see in his words.' Since the Albert Hall specch everybody has understood that Homo Rule,-in the . common ... sense' of the . words would be a part of the Liberal pro' gramme, *. "A system of-self-govern-ment in purely Irish affairs-a sys-tem-which shall explicitly; safeguard the supremo authority of the Imperial Parliament I '—what is that but Home Rule as it is wanted by all save the few extremists who desire an Irish Republic,. Home Rule as it exists in New Zealand at this moment 1

.It is small wonder that the K«s is indignant; nor do we think that unbiased people will , quarrel with the great London daily's interpretation of the Government's attitude. "The' county elections,'!; the - Times observes, "in which the; Irish vote is insignificant, arc beginning, and thd: -Liberals -hope to profit by re-, piidiation of - an intention upon which they have hitherto been trading.- The; late- Sir William Harcourt|s expression,: 'A dirty trick,' ■fittingly describes, the. manoeuvre; What is now meant is that a Home Rule Bill will only be introduced if it serves the party purpose.'" If tho elections already hold could be cancelled,, and held afresh, tho Liberals would assuredly lose all. those which they .'have won by small majorities, for the Home Rule .supporters would almost to- a man. transfer- their allegiance .to the! other side. ; Unless some unforeseen "landslide" takes placo the Nationalists will, in any. event, hold the balance of power, and Mr.- Asquith's trick, unless it is censured at the'polls, will greatly profit the Liberals, For thie repudia-

tion of any definite intention to bring in a Homo Kule Bill will reaßsuro a great many English, voters who would otherwise cast their votes for the Unionist party, while the Nationalists, after the election, can still be retained by a pious-Liberal surrender to "the will of the people" as expressed by the state of parties in the House; The Lords, however, will have the best' possible warrant for rejecting a Home Rule Bill if they .think, . fit, and the Liberals', case will then be rather : ill. No Government can expect stability if it plavs fast and loose with both the friends and opponents of Home Rule. The incident is certain to help forward- the movement for a sweeping reform of the' 1 electoral methods of Britain.