The Daily News. MONDAY, OCTOBER 18. THE KING'S INFLUENCE IN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 216, 18 October 1909, Page 2

The Daily News. MONDAY, OCTOBER 18. THE KING'S INFLUENCE IN

POLITICS. Probably the most interesting of all the developments in connection with the British (iovernment's Budget is the reported native intercession of the King, "The Peacemaker," to avert, if possible, the serious rupture that threatens between the Lords and the Commons. Jt is certainly a remarkable tribute to his personal popularity and accredited sound judgment that in these democratic no question should be raised that he is thus acting in other than a constitutional manner. The conception of the Sovereign as hut a figure-head in Ue I actuality of the Jlritish Constitution is Exceedingly wide of the mark, hut that it is so we believe is due to the conviction of the people that King Edward is not only a Sovereign endowed with deep wisuom and wise discretion, but a statesman of conspicuous ability. Ilis intervent.Di; jis arbiter, therefore, at a time when there is every prospect of a grave constitutional crisis between the rival Houses of Parliament a crisis that might easily kindle lires of class iiatrul '-is a circumstance accepted without

question, ami not without a great i«j gree oi satisfaction. There is already a ieeling that the King's tactfulness is almost certain to avert the raising ot' aw'vward constitutional questions, and already it is observed that this feeling is reflected on the sensitive Consols market— the surest register of tlu* movement of the public pulse on questions of national moment in these times. Probably Ilis Majesty's counsel will go in the direction of inducing the fiovernment to relax in some measure the most arbitrary of their proposals, and ilia Lords as representatives of the great landed interests will be prevailed upon to see that their most prudent course is to knuekle down to a reasonable scheme of graduated taxation. The latest mail advices from the Old Country seem to show that the hostility at first evinced against the Budget is, particularly in the country, being converted into popularity. But although the people's appreciation of the proposals Ijas- increased with fuller knowledge of their real meaning, the prospects of the Bill receiving the favor of the House of Lords was not viewed wifca any confidence. It is pointed out that 111 the House of Lords, the position wi.'l be altogether different to that in the Commons, There the (Jovernment is as weak as in the Commons it is strong, lu the House of Lords, therefore, th-; Government can only win by the fears or the good grace of the powerful men at whose interests they are striking. Meanwhile the campaign is-being waged with lierceness. But, despite all the bitterness, it is not without its entertainments. W rites the Sydney Telegraph's London correspondent:— "Nothing better has been seen in political strategy than the Liberals 1 baiting of the dukes. The dukes were at once the strength and weakness of the Unionist Opposition. So long as they 'could bo kept quiet they could be represented as the great bulwark of English life, tiw guardians of the. people against the lanatacism of any Sudden majority in the Commons winch .might depart from the mandate of the people. Extraordinary as it appears, this was the 6tory successfully told as a justification for the killing of the Licensing Bill last year, and that despite the fact that England's peers and England's brewers are to a pronounced extent indistinguishable. The same lofty attitude was attempted over the Budget. Mr. Balfour and h's fellow-jighters, who are the "brains of the Unionists, declared the opposition io the land taxes to be a disinterested patriotic opposition prompted only by a desire to protect the people against their representatives who had gone mad in the Commons. Why these representatives should have set out to give the people on whose votes they exist something very bad for them was ignored. But the scheme almost worked. The peoplo almost believed that the hereditary duke,& wero their friends, and that their own eleet in the Commons were plotting for their destruction. Had the dukefc kept quiet, the Budget would never have reached the popularity it enjoys- to-day. But. happily for the country. the "strain proved fo much fori them. I l»c possibility of «. tax upon ' llieir magnificent lands, based not as heretofore upon their own valuation made a century or more ago. but upon the actual selling value of to-dav, proved too -much for their discretion. * All over the country they took to the platform and told their grievance. It became plain to the peoplv that tho dukes have enjoying an extraordinary immunity from taxation, that they haw been contributing next to nothing to the exchequer of the country which has made their wealth and which gives them Gaiety. Jn a few weeks all was confusion. The British peer has established his claim tu lie regarded as the most foolish man who before an audience. The ducal procedure was to Uneaten. enauU have been summoned on estate after estate, and told that the Budget and its land taxes would mean their ruin. Bents would go up, and cm- | ployment would diminish. 'I havrv i writes the Duke of Northumberland, 'a | herd of deer, two home farms, two , three gardens, a certain number of saddle and harness horses, a certain' umouiit of game: I subscribe pretiv liberally to a pnek of hounds, ete. Ati'v or all of these 1 can reduce or aboli-a, and, for that matter, without any inprecia lile personal (lisadvaiitiiirc-; imf'l cannot help seciiiff that it means want of employment to all those wlio live I;v ni.v hoping „„ t |,ese (Ilillgs _, T)|( , ]njll ;, ot rural England, adds the correspon- . I'M. moves slowly, but it was .not co <lull as to miss tile point that if the land now reserved for deer parks n -id game ( preserves and hounds were forced bv equitable taxation into more profitab'e uses there would be an increase rath"r than a diminution of employment The dukes' .speeches, in .short, were a fabl mistake. They were interested, self},}'.] speeches; whieh antagonised rather than converted. I» this threat of reduced cniplovim'iit made liv the dukes the Lioerals have retorted that the people must like then-choice between a tax on the larjje estates or a tax on their own food. Hie I nionists stand for tariff reform, and turill reform for a tax 011 food. it is easy to understand how the Budget ha? arrested the popularity of the tariffisls; and it is easier still U understand, wily the Vniouists, wlio have their greatr»-t strength in (he landowning peers, are tariff reformers. Jr»nev h Hilled ; cvvrybodv is , m t to tax ' tllO otliei fellow; and the dukes, ha vim* the greatest wealth and the least votes?mid being a elass which fatten on everv ollev Cla-. are likely to get the worst of it." I p lo the present no quarter lias been asked for or given, and it remains to he Seen -whether I he King's influence is such as will enable 'him to secure for the rival interests mutual concessions that will ! prevent the quarrel over the Budget from | precipitating « serious national crisis. There is no reason to dr..iht that in removing domestic misunderstandings he will lie any less successful than he has been in removing those international

differences and cementing those international friendships that have earned for liim the honored title of Edward the Peacemaker.