BRITISH POLITICS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 607, 9 December 1909, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

London, -December 7. The Hon. Winston Churchill, speaking at Southport, said he thought it but right, at an early stage in the fight, to differentiate .between’ hereditary monarchy and hereditary peers. The Sovereign reigned, but did not govern. His powers were exercised on the advice of his Ministers. The Monarch had no interests divergent from the people. He laid stress on the fact that the Transvaal and Orangia had been given a great Constitution by letters patent under the Crown without submitting them to the Lords! Had they been so submitted, they would have been mutilated and mauled under the influence of such an evil counsellor as Lord Milner. The whole movement of the world

was against the Lords’ greedy intrusion into legislation. He asked why 600 titled persons should govern us and their children govern oflrs for ever ? If an unreformed and partisan House of Lords was continued, then * the reign of two great parties would be closed for ever, and the parties would be grouped on violent lines, when brute force and class hatred instead of forbearance and public spirit would become the characteristics of British political life. The Hon. Colonel Seely, Undersecretary for the Colonies, speaking at Liverpool, said that if the Liberal? were returned to power it would make financial chaos impossible in the future by establishing the Constitution firmly and in writing. The Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress, in a manifesto, declares that the House of Lords has never voluntarily done anything to promote the interests of the masses. “On the contrary, ’ ’ the manifesto adds, “ they have protected every privilege, and persistently and consistently delayed reforms. They are a menage to political freedom, and the rejection of the Budget was a deliberate Insult to the people.” The manifesto urges the abolition of the House of Lords.