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THE PARTY SYSTEM.

ITS EFFECT ON INDEPENDENCE. BRILLIANT SPEECH BY LORD EOSEBERY. In view of the formation (reported by cable yesterday) of a new Centre Unionist' party, of which Lord Cromer, Mr. Harold Cox, and Mr. St. Loe Strachey are the leading members, a special interest attaches to the dinner tendered to Mr. Cox on February 15 by the British Constitutional Association. The gathering was an extremely brilliant one, the speakers including Lord Rosebery, Lord Cromer, Mr. Cox, Lord Hugh Cecil, and Mr. Strachey, while leading men of all parties and shades of opinion were present. The most important speech of the evening was, of course, that of Lord Rosebery, who, after quoting some letters of congratulation, said: ,

. Both letters, interesting and valuable as they are, coming from ■ those who are politically opposed to Mr. Cox, are as nothing compared to this vast assembly, called from all parties and all sections of parties, which has met to do him honour to-night. (Cheers.) They have come to do him honour,; but they- have also-come to do honour to a sacred name which is often talked about but seldom really worshipped, the name of liberty. . (Cheers.) We here to-night are assembled to do honour to Mr. Cox as embodying the principle of liberty, (Cheers.) We have in this country a two-party system, which is easily expanded to four or five at need. (Laughter.). I count three parties in Ireland, three in.England, and three in Scotland. I do not think there is so much. variety in Wales. (Laughter.) But for the purpose of our gathering to-night we have to acknowledge two great parties, and we have to remember that party feeling, admirable as itiis in many; ways, and which at any rate must be' recognised as a necessity of our political system, has the effect, worked as.it is with increasing harshness' and increasing intolerance, of crushing out all independence in Parliament. (Cheers.) Perhaps that is not strictly true. It has crushed out. almost all independence from the House of Commons. (Hear, hear.) But /there is another institution which I hardly venture to' name at this time and in this place— (laughter)—but it- is recognised by the Constitution as an integral part of Parliament— (cheers)-r-which at any rate has/this advantage, that it is theonly political assembly which 'I. am acquainted with" in this country where it is possible to utter with '■ perfect freedom and'perfect ease and perfect acceptance unpalatable truths. (Cheers.) I am not going to enlarge on the advantage of a Second Chamber'to-night, but 1 would ask you to remember, when you- .are prepared to • deal with what exists in one way or another, that when you .have got' rid of your Second Chamber you have got rid, so far as I know, of the only political assembly in which independent truth can be truly spoken. .'(Cheers'.)' : : Now I have said that party is a necessity,: as far as. we can judge,-of our political system. To some it is an agreed able- necessity. To some; a party embodies all that an infallible Church' embodies to its devotees. To others it is simply a disagreeable necessity. There are many, I think, who find in party and in the utterance of party the same satisfaction that- a devotee finds in an infallible ' Church. They 'believe that the voice of party is the voice of Deity, and they bowt accordingly!;:,'.. L suppose the honest truth is''that a party system is founded''on this, that you believe in the men you are acting with, and believe in the long run and in the gross their collective wisdom is likely to be greater than your individual wisdom. That is as much as to say- that, while every man has a conscience or is presumed to have a conscience, a party pools its conscience—(laughter)—and if you find in your political system an individuality: who is not- prepared to pool his conscience, he becomes anathema,' and has to be expelled as' hindering tie oily working of.the machine. '

THREE SACRIFICES AT THE ELECTION. That is all very right, very sublime, and yery admirable, but we pay dearly for it. (Hear, hear.) To tnisMoloch we sacrificed -at.the last election Mr.: Larabfon—(hear, hear) —Lord Robert Cecil —(cheers) —and Mr. Harold Cox. (Cheers.) These three men have now been .sacrificed to your party .system. Of all the men. off the front benches .they were the three who would have filled the House soonest when it was known they were up. and speaking— (hear', hear) —and that is ,tke. sacrifice you have made to'your party system at this election. You have sacrificed Mr. Lambton, who bears a name connected with northern Liberalism for three generations, a man intrepid and eloquent and caustic beyond most speakers in Parliament. ,You have sacrificed Lord Robert Cecil, the son of the. great Conservative chief ,'. their, debt to whom the Conservative party /will only as it goes on be able to appreciate to the lull. (Hear,, hear.) And last, but not least, you have sacrificed our guest of of this evening. . , Now,, we have had the party system all through my life and long before my life, but I appeal to our illustrious and I veteran guest Lord Halsbury, as exLord Chancellor. (Cheers.) I appeal to his corroboration on this point, that in former. years, even up to the date 1885,. there was so much independence inherent in Parliament that when a vote of want of confidence was brought against the Government, you could hardly tell which way it would go. I remember a crisis of that kind when I was at school in'the time of Lord Palmerston, but- I remember even as late as 1885, when Mr. Gladstone was Prime Minister, and there'was a vote of censure brought against him in the House of Commons on Egyptian affairs, that he only partly cleared himself by the votes of his Cabinet,_ though he entered that Parliament with a major-i ity of eighty. Does not that illustrate the difference between what was understood by party feeling- in those days and what is understood now, when any man who hesitates for a moment over the shibboleth of the party is instantly and promptly expelled. (Cheers.)

A MARTYR'S CROWN FOR CRITICISING THE BTJDGET. But there is one, excellent and admirable reason why our friend was expelled. He criticised' the Budget. (Laughter.) ' Others criticised the Budget, but the great distinction and personal disadvantage attaching to Mr. Harold Cox's criticisms of the Budget was that they were unanswerable and unanswered. (Loud cheers.) From that moment Mr. Cos's doom was sealed. (Laughter.)' His weighty, wise, eloquent, and pregnant criticisms of the Budget, founded on,vast knowledge of financial history, were uttered to crowded houses in the Commons, they were listened to by Ministers, and no Minister, I venture to say, ever answered or attempted to answer the criticisms of Mr. Cox. (Cheers.) When you gain a great dialetical victory like that, a great victory of reason of that kind in the present condition of our party system, you must suffer for it, and Mr. Cox wears the martyr's crown to-night, —(laughter)—a crown which 4 I think, is. not a disagreeable one to him among so many frionds and admirers. He wears that martyr's crown for his piinsPont and mmnaw<wafal6 critioisms. of the

Budget. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Cox has been crushed out between the contending caucuses of the two great English parties of tie State. That is to say, that what we often hear characterised as the voice of the country has condemned Mr. Cox.

THE SILENT VOTE. We hear a great deal about the voice of the country as represented in Parliament—not, of course, in the House which sits under an exhaustive receiver until it receives the happy dispatch— I mean the House of Commons. I sometimes venture to wonder in the audacious moments of solitude —and perhaps you will allow me to consider the present as one of those—(laughter) —I wonder how far the whole voice of the country is expressed in the House of Commons —(hear, hear) —by the machinery of the two_ contending [caucuses trying, to. get rid of third parties which disarrange their affairs. Is there anything else'but the old Whig [ and Tory, or Radical or Unionist, or whatever they are called now ? Is there anything else in the country but this? Does Mr. Cox, in his exclusion, not represent in reality as great a vote as that which was polled for either side in politics at the recent election ? What party politicians are always watching at a general election is not their own people or their direct opponents so much as what they know as the silent vote._ It is the silent vote which determines elections, as every party managed will tell you. Well, if the silent vote varies, it is quite clear that it does not belong entirely to either of the two great parties of the State. I am under the impression that Mr. Cox represents the silent vote as much as any member represents any constituency in the United Kingdom! (Cheers.) INDOLENT AND UNORGANISED. , And why is the silent vote totally inefficacious to' produce directly any candidate in Parliament? It is, first, because'_ it is indolent; and, secondly, because it is disorganised. It was said by a great professor on one occasion that .if.alT the fleas in his bed had combined they, would have pulled .Kim out of' bed-slaughter)—but they were scattered' fleas, and he was unfortunate enough to remain- in bed..' (More laughter.) I am inclined to think, that that- is metaphorically true of the silent- vote. The great mass of somewhat apathetic but thinking, reasoning, and judging people in this country who sway our destinies at the general election are not sufficiently organised to return a single- member. That,seems', to be a great disaster. - I do not know if now or hereafter those who think like Mr. Cox—who are for freedom as against bureaucracy—(hear, hear)—for freedom as against democratic tyranny—(cheers)—who are for freedom as against) class legislation of the bitterest kind; and,' last but not least, ■ for freedom as against Socialism—are content to be unrepresented. They will be unrepresented so long as they will not organise and will not work, so long as they remain what Sir William Harcourt called mere armchair, politicians. 'They are content to turn the scale at a general election, but for the practical purposes of politics they are null and void. THE VITAL ; QUESTION OF A SECOND CHAMBER. -And'yet this does seem .a moment when the people of. reason and common sense might combine in common-sense interests to do something for the welfare of the country: instead of sending an indolent and silent vote at a general election. You'> have perhaps greater issues now before you, greater issues under more-critical circumstances, than n*n e ? c TI ed ? ince the great Reform H S f J 183 1 2 "'f: do "0* now-speak or the Budget, which, I presume, is an accoinphshe<i.,fact-or, not an accomplished facfeflaughterj-dcpendent not on the wishes of England, Scotland, or Wales, but on the. direction and control of Ireland. (Renewed 'laughter.) 1 pass the Budget by,-because whether Jt to ?? s , sed or - not . it is Irish and not British finance that will be carried, c -if i°° me toa 9 uesii o n which is one of vital importance to .this country—the question of a Second Chamber, which is now hanging in the scales, in dispute between a-majority of .two for tlie Government against the Opposition and various skirmishers on the flanks of both parties who may decide the question: the question,of whether you are to have a bicameral Bystem, as' you have had for, centuries, whether you are to sink to a Single Chamber, or whether you are to sink to* what in my opinion is infinitely worse and infinitely more dangerous, a Single Chamber with another of shadowy eunuchs by its side, a mere phantom of authority with the appearance of responsibility and no .reality. (Hear, hear.) I am convinced from all I hear—l should be convinced if I had heard nothing from my knowledge of the common- sense'of my countrymen—l am' nrmly convinced that any appeal by Referendum or otherwise to-the country on the subject- of an efficient Chamber would meet with an overwhelming majority in favour of a strong, a real, and an efficient Second Chamber. (Cheers ) But if we are really to be told that what is called the veto of the House of Lords, which is in reality only the concurrent right of-the Second Chamber to deal with: legislation; is to' be abolished without any attempt at reform, without' any attempt at removing what I venture to think are the vices of the hereditary principle in the hereditary Chamber, without any attempt to remodel or reform the' Chamber that you are going practically to disestablish, I venture to say if these be the proposals of the Government they are foredoomed, not perhaps now, but in the immediate future, to absolute and irretrievable disaster at the hands of the country (Cheers.)

A ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE FISCAL CONTROVERSY. lam not making a political speech. I am proposing/the. health of Mr. Cox, and I apologise if I am led beyond my theme. Let me take another point, a still more delicate point, on which the country has given no certain voice whatever—the question as between Freetrade and Tariff Reform. The country has given no clear voice on that, and has disappointed both parties.' That is perhaps the best result for the country at large that has come out of the general election. But in , these circumstances, if< there be a drawn battle between the two parties on this subject, is there no possibility• of getting to work by other methods, by referring this great problem which the country finds • itself unable to solve from want of information or from other causes— is there no possibility of referring that great issue to a Royal Commission composed of judicially-minded persons, who would at anyrate give us a moment's truce from the assertions of both parties, and who would when they had concluded their labours give a. verdict which the country would respect with regard to a question.which is not wisely or well dealt with at the ordinary hazards of a'general election? These are'points on which tho silent voters in the country might very easily concentrate themselves. They may very easily form a butt of opinion which no Government conld afford to disregard or disrespect. (Hear, hear.) They might not achieve office, but office is but a ■ small incident in the career either of a State or of a man. What has to be thought of, what is so. seldom thought of in .those electoral contests whore tho quostion is blue beforo green or green before blue —what has'to be thought of are the great permanent interests of. this country, and if I saw a little more of what is good for the country and a little less of what is for the good of the Government and tho Opposition I should augur better of our Constitution. ,(ohoor*A I|

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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19100329.2.74

Bibliographic details
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Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 777, 29 March 1910, Page 8

Word count
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2,520

THE PARTY SYSTEM. Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 777, 29 March 1910, Page 8

THE PARTY SYSTEM. Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 777, 29 March 1910, Page 8

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