WEDNESDAY, OCTOBEE 19, 1910. BRITISH POLITICS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 951, 19 October 1910, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1910. BRITISH POLITICS.

;Since-, the beginning of; September the 1 cable news concerningthe;poiitical situation.:ih' Great, Britain.-has": been .very interesting, and , even more 1 - so during the past week';."or!; 'two/ When the House rose for the autumn recess; the Overshadowing ,topic Vwas the :';'CbnstitutionaL issue,", apd*.itseemed ■: as if . there . was; nothing ahead v.save . that was to end, with the:.announcement. of ■ the negative or positive, result of the yVeto".,: Conference, in :an enthusiastio renewal ; of/hostilities': on'; :the.:old;.lines.,. Y ln'seyerardirecti6ns,. however, 1 "there.have been;'develop-' ments that nobody-expected,;; andwhen;;.Mß.' Asquith "'again ;; faces :the : ;House,,he. will ; find.- an; alteration in : theJ position of each -of'the';'.- three' other parties. ■;Events. havo marched. rapidly, for;:the,.Unionists,, the.'-Ea--bpur:partyv;;and /the,; Nationalists,: and, the: movement .has not* been ■ to the:, advantage -of the -Government.' 1 : .The; best'way, tb'undiirstarid the situ-' a'tioh is ■■to take these three parties : separately.-\;MR;-'Asquith' would' probably give :first placp■'in-.pomt,."of". importance, to the development in the Nationalist ranks. .Mr. William O'BRi.EN.has; prosccubed : ".his .cam?, .'paign' against Mr} Eedmond with so'; much vigour that- the .Nationalist leader', has. been.driven into taking up a very firm attitude towards the Government. The Government, Mr. O'Brien declared in a stirring spepch at Orossmolina on August 27, 'Tiad fooled Mb. Kedmond and, his friends'"" with a ' sham'campaign against tho Houeo of Lords, arid they had now without a word of consultation with Mr. Eedmond shut him out from the Conference in which all this_ rubbish about a revolution against the House of Lords was now dead and buried." Since Mr. O'Brien delivered this speech there has been a shower of hints that the Conference will report anything'but an agreement on the "Veto" issue that will satisfy Mr. Redmond. All the ingenious glosses we have had' upon this Minister's speech and that Minister's silence may be quite without warrant in facts, but it certainly does appear that there is no sentence of death coming to -the Peers. On the day following Mr. O'Brien's speech at Crossmolina, Mr. Redmond spoke at Kilkenny. He said that he distrusted every English statesman, but that he scarcely thought it possible for Mr. AsQurra to go back on his Albert Hall promiso .of "full self-govern-ment for Ireland." If the "Veto" of the : Peers wore abolished, and the Government attempted to go back on their! pledges to Ireland, the Irish party would hurl them from ofike. And if a compromise ''were arranged which would leave the Peers free to reject Home Rule, "the Irish party would drive from office within a month by a sleepless and relentless opposition any Government guilty of such an act of treachery and dishonour."

In the meantime_ tte agitation over tie Osborne judgment has almost .resulted.in converting■ the Labour party into a party of enmity to the Government. It appeared in the beginning that the blow to, the political power of the > Trade Unions might be counteracted by the, payment of members' of parliament.. The leaders of, the . -'.Labour. . party, however, while supporting the. payment of members as a .general policy, have decided that it will in no way meet the case. >. Mr. : Ramsay Mac Donald, who is ■ quite; the ablest of the Labour leaders, was reported last, week as having said that the reversal of the Osborne judgment must be insisted upon. "The supreme question," he Vsaid, ,"is whether there will be a place, broad, ample and secure, provided by the Constitution for Labour representation. Nothing else hair L the . least significance for the Labour 'party." ■There arc dissenting voices in the Socialist/and Labour press. ; ■ The Clarion, for example, which thinks that "neither ;the Liberal nor Tory parties intend to alter the import of the Osborne ; decision," declares without any . qualification that, that .decision ■ is-Boiindj and that "a man cannot, be aiiked to finance any

scheme, social or personal, which he does .not approve." Commenting upon this,' tne Morning Post pointed out that while the "old guard" of the Liberal party could be relied upon to defend the Osborne judgment, the! Radical wing of the Liberal organisation might have its way: "It is not Mr. Asquith and Sir.Edward Grey who will .have the final decision; but Mr. LloydGeorge and Mr. Winston Churchill." Thatthis is not an unreasonable view is pretty evident from the fact that Colonel Seely, speaking at Ilkeston during August, used language that indicated that tho Government regarded the reversal of the judgment as an open question. Wide publicity was given to. his statement, and, although he was given an opportunity to correct the reported version of -his speech, he has not done so. The latest Ministerial utterance.was that of the Attorney-General, who was reported on, Monday as having scouted only, the "complete",- reversal ;of the decision. The Unionist party, in the meantime,' is past the first, stage of .adding the payment of members to its programme. The first intimation, of. this move appeared in an article by "A Practical Tory" in'the Morning Post of September 9. This writer argued that as the. Osborne judgment; could'not be reversed some means should be devised to. satisfy "the desire of ,the working -classes for direct : ■ . "The payment, of members'.and , their election expenses ■would: enable" : - Trade Union representatives to sit in •Parliament without,the. tyrannical exaction of .'subscriptions .from , political opponents. It., would take • ■ all the'. sting out of an. agitation -which might easily "beoorn<e ;dangerous, for no; one 'could : then pretehd, thats the, working classes were/debarred from direct .representation.'.-. ;At the , saine time, if would take. fromtheVmanaging caucus of the Labour party their most effective. weapon, the power_ of the-purse.' , In..supp6rting this the Post called for a. prompt declaration '.by.: the Unionist party.- j ' The news, : cabled on.: Monday' -that. 'Sir' Gilbert .Parker favours ■ the- : payf ment of members is evidence that the idea is gaining in .favour; with. the. Unionists, who see in it.a good asset for the \ general, election, that' eyerybodjr feels sure will come next year.; There is cause-enough-in:all' this for Liberal ■ arixietj , -,' and | since', the Labour ■leaders are'..'..condemning ..the. "yeto , : 1 . Conference; and 'adopting a. threatening; if,, not actually, hostile, attitude.y.Mß.' Ascjtjith's;.-iask , '"■ bids' fair tb'.be infinitely 'more' , ,difficult .than .it 'promised v. to be when .the Housed adjourned. v ■ , \ . ;■, ■• '.•'>■