The House of Lords

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4500, 7 December 1909, Page 2

The House of Lords

London, December 5. Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, addressing 2000 Liberals at Leith, said that the country was in for the greatest ngnt of generations. The Government might have fought the Lords on the Education Bill, but was justified m remaining in office because they saved the country a great injury by its South African policy, and estabi lished a scheme of army reform which appealed to the whole countiy and enlisted its spirited support. Referring to Lord Curzon s idea of reform of the Lords by a small? r body of superior persons chosen t»y themselves, Sir Edward said there could be no real reform unless the hereditary principle were abolisbel and popular election substituted* (Loud cheers'. The Radical newspaper National, calls upon hundreds of thousand* of Englishmen to refuse to pay taxes should the Government be over* thrown at the election. The National Democratic League held a demonstration of 7000 strong in Trafalgar Square, protesting against the Lords’ rejection of tne Budget. , r-u t Dr. Clifford and a dozen Liberal Labour members were the chief speakers. Many banners were car* ried and the effigy of a P e ® r paraded. It consisted of a turnip cut into the likeness of a face with a paper crown carried on a red robed pole, labelled “ the first born.’ The effigy caused both merriment and booing. . , Mr Winston Churchill, in a speech at Preston, said that the Liberal party did not intend to undertake the burdens of the Government again unless full and effective powers were given them.