BRITISH CRISIS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1601, 19 November 1912, Page 7

BRITISH CRISIS.

MR ASQUITH DENIES RUMOUR. UNIONIST MILITANCY. Bj Talearann—Press Association—Oopyrlitht London, November 17. Mr. John Redmond, (Leader of the Nationalist Party), speaking at York, said the Unionist leaders, by their rtcent action, had proved themselves anarchists. They had deliberately attempted to overcome the majority by violence. If th,ey succeeded it would mean the end of Parliamentary government. Mr. Asquith denies the Tumour that tbo Government is dropping the Welsh Disestablishment Bill. Sir Edward Grey, Seoretary for Poreign Affairs, in a letter road at a Liberal meeting at Alnwick, commenting on the Unionists' militancy, said: "As no Measure to which the Opposition objects can operate until it is passed three times, or there has been an appeal to the country, the Unionists' violence is inexcusable." In a speech at Cork, Mr. William O'Brien, Leader of the Independent Nationalist Party, said the finance provisions of the Home Rule Bill were rotten to the core. Mr. Lloyd-George hated Home Rulo and Irish land purchase, and had brought the Bill arid the Government to the verge of ruin. Mr. LloydGeorge had done more damage to Ireland's cause than anyone since ' Cromwell. CAN THE GOVERNMENT LAST? CAN THEY PASS THEIR BILLS? "Can the Government last?" "Can they pass their Bills?" These (says "Public Opinion" of October 11) are the questions many politicians are asking. "Within the inner counsels of Ministers themselves there is no' real hope that they can., survive the next two years," says the "Observer." "They know that they have lost the confidence of the country upon the issues before it, and their sole aim now is to find means of confusing the judgment of the country upon other issues." : Lords to Reject Home Rule. "The Times" declares that it is "a commonplace of politics that the Lords will reject the Home Rulo Bill on Second Reading." The "Manchester Guardian" agrees that this may be the case. The great importance of., the present session is widely recognised. We are told that it may "go far to determine future courses of political history."—"Observer." "Th© session is destined to be historic, and the course of British pdicy must bo profoundly affected."—"Liverpool Post," "The Government'," says "The Times," "enter upon a difficult and overcrowded session with no very great political capital, and no very-remarkable driving force behind them. Their task is to force into law three great and highly contentious measures—the Home Rule Bill, the Welsh Disestablishment Bill, and the Franchise and Registration Bill, If, . under tho Parliament Act, they are to evade the powers, still left to the House of Lords, these measures must be sent to the Upper House at least one month before the closo of the session. No doubt the closure, the time-table device, and the selective process known as the 'kangaroo' will all be ruthlessly used to the uttermost of official power. But, even so, the programme is a heavy one, and there are limits to official power imposed- by growing dvubt and dissatisfaction within the majority itself." . What the Preniier Says. . Against these foreboding statements must be placed tho.vPretnierY-.eniphatKv statement that tho Government are not going to bow to the threats of Ulster, and that the intention of the Government remains what it has always been, "to place the Homo Rule Bill'on the Statute Book." ',"The : Ulster'campaign;"'ha says "furnishes for the future a complete grammar of anarchy. If they were to succeed— they won't succeed—in preventing - the passing of the Home Rule Billj what possible answer would they have to make to the four-fifths of the Irish people, whose long-cherished aspirations would have been frustrated and defeated? What answer would .they have to make to those men if they said in turn, 'We will take the law into our own hands; you have refused us our olementary rights ?'" "If the Ministry," says the "Times" Parliamentary correspondent, "were to advise tho King to dissolve Parliament, finding the difficulties of their position insuperable, they would take a course which would elicit, sympathy in many quarters. But the general election would be. fought on the Insurance Act.- Whatever their pastors and masters, guides, philosophers, and friends may tell the people as to the issues at the next general election, the democracy are going to 'vote on tho Act.'" Unionist Tactics. , "Here in a sentence the whole inside view of Unionist tactics is revealed to ua," says tho "Westminster Gazette." "Their tactics are to break the Government before their principal measures can get to the House of Lords, and to force them to tho country on the Insurance Act." -;-,. "The' Opposition may declaim on platforms about the iniquity of passing Home Rule before a general election and tho necessity of consulting the electors on that. The Tariff Reformers may pursue their ducal propaganda and insist that their nostrum be formally placed in the first place of the official programme. But tho Unionist organiser knows that neither Home Rule nor Tariff Reform will bring the Unionist Party to victory, but hopes that they may be floated in on tho discontent inseparable from the first workings of the Insurance Act, provided the election can be taken early enough. "This is a cynical calculation when we remember the original attitude of the Tory Party to this measure," adds tho "Westminster," "and their special, endorsement of the contributory- principle, which alone is the cause of such friction as it produces.. But if the election is to bs on the Insurance Act, we n.ust at least see to it that it is taken on a sufficient experience of the Act, inclnding'its benefits as well as its contributions.''