The Dominion. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1910. THE BRITISH LIBERALS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 735, 7 February 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1910. THE BRITISH LIBERALS.

The cable messages relating to the political situation in Great Britain aje now mainly concerncd with the great difficulties which the Liberals are : finding in the business of . making up their minds. This mußt be very disappointing to those; people in the overseas States of the Empire who were led to believe that the.British nation was only waiting for an opportunity: to. endorse the .Budget by giving the Liberals a majority compared with which'their enormous majority in the. late Parliament' would appear insignificant. Were it not that the situation is in every direction gravely, important, there would be cause for some amusement at the embarrassment of the Government.The immediate problem is: What.is; to, be done first 1 Tho solution of it would not be difficult were •it,not that, throughout their, campaign the Liberals have set the afc tafck; upon;' the Lords above' all! other duties in ,importance ; and uf genoy. They would not hold . office, their leaders said' over and .over again,: until the pararaountcy of:the' Commons in regard to Finance Bills was settled ones and for all, and settled in: such a manner as would render idle all discussion as to the written or unwritten usage ofthei; Constitution. This> extreme emphasis ■ aroso from , the intense - conviction ' of. tho Government that Mr. Lloyd-GeoHqk had correctly _ diagnosed"' the Btate of public feeling. It is now apparent/to' everybody thatrpublic opinion is not in favour of the "smashing" operations contemplated. That being so, it is also Cleat thatlthe Government will commit suicide, without: achieving anything in the way either of legislation or of glory, if it seeks to make good at once its threat of destroying tho power of the Lords.

There is now in full movcraenttho I interesting <jf backing-down. The battle is no longer between Me. Lloyt-Georcb and ■ the Dukes, but between those Liberal enthusiasts on the one hand; who still, believe that the: nation wishes the.Government to opeii fire upon the Upper House before proceeding to other business, and on the, other hand those shrewder' students of facts who were never really carried away by the' rhetoric of the "melting-pot" party.- It : is these latter whose . counselis the wisest-that can' be offeredto the I Government, and the counsel that the Government must be anxious to follow* . The Government, in fact, is in the uncomfortable position' of : having acted. its part too well—of Having created an- enthusiasm at which 1 it did not aim—of having, in short, neglected to' safeguard ; itself against being taken, quite- literally. If lie Budget, even m a diluted condition, could be got through, tho ardour of the.; extremists would :perhaps be satisfied with something less than the full ■ destruction of the - Peers' veto. In: the meantime they are clamouring for a fulfilment of tho awful threats 1 uttered during the last two months. Some of them have applauded the proposal that the Government should not take office unless tho. King consented to "break the power" of the Lords. We learn to-day that some of the greatest of the Liberal news-, papers are . advocating that ".the .Government should 'deal with the Lords before introducing .the Budget!" Coming from friendß of such weight and influence as the Matir Chester Guardian and the Daily News, .this advice- must • be in the highest' dfigTee embarrassing to Mb. Asquith and his colleagues, and a souroc of great trouble to those newspapers—sjuch as the Westminster . Gazette and- the •paUy Chronicle—whose function it is to assist the' Government • to withdraw from the position which, in the eyes of hundreds of thousands of electors, it is pledged to maintain. ■ The ; Daily Chronicle recalls a statement by Mb. AbquiTh, made two I months ago, that on the reassembling of the new Parliament tho Budget would be at on'oe reintroduced. We are afraid,' however, in view of the multitudinous declarations by practically every member of the Government that the first business, and the most' important business would bo the' imposition of a check' Upon the Upper House, that the Chronicle's appeal to the records of the Prime Minister's utterances will be thought as inconclusive aa would be to tbe New Zealand 'public an appeal to any isolated statement of policy by Sib Joseph Wabb on, say, the land question. There is, of course, ho moral obligation upon tho Government to arrange its plan of campaign in any given order, although 4 vast numbor of Liberals may take another and sterner view Of the Government's duty. There cannot be much doubt that the attack on the Lords will be postponed until after the Budget ' is reintroduced, although, if a defeat or dissolution is due in the near future, very little will be gained,-and'muoh-may be lost, by making any new policies be-

gin their earthly career with a brief lifo to.be followed by a sudden doath. If _ a new policy, once introduced, is extremely difficult to get rid of, a new law, oiice discarded, is equally hard to resuscitate. The present split Ih the ranks of the Liberal tactlci&na affords an excellent illusti*ation of the truth that great trouble is generally the sequel of violence unbacked by sincerity and single-mindednesß.