DISSOLUTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 256, 4 December 1909, Page 2

DISSOLUTION.

BRITISH POLITICAL CHINS AN IMMEDIATE APPEAL TO THt COUNTRY. MOMENTOUS ISSUEB. PREMIER SEVERELY ATTACKS T#E LORDS. THE PEOPLE'S RIGHTS. TRAMPLED UPON BY AN IRRESPONSIBLE BODY. WHO SHALL RULE!

Bj Cable—Press Association—Copyright Received December 3, 10.20 p.m. London, December 3. Tbe House of Common* »u thronged from floor to ceiling, there being rows upon rows of eager and attentive facet. The appearance of tbe Premier (Mr. Aaquith) was tbe tlignal for deafening Ministerial cheers, his followers rising to do him honor. Mr. Balfour (Leader of the Opposition) was in turn enthusiastically acclaimed by the Unionists, his unexpected attendance, after a slight chill, stimulating them to a high pitch of excitement The debate was comparatively abort. Mr. Asquitb raovedi " That tbe action of the House of Lord* in retusing to pass into law the financial provision* made by the House of Common* for the service of the year 1* a breach of til*' rights of the House of Common*." The resolution was carried by MS to 234.

Mr. Asquith was grave and earnetf, and declared the circumstances were asparalleled in the history of the Brltlik [Parliament. Be recalled With matted emphasis that the Houie of Commow was alone addressed in the Speech (ton the Throne in February, when it was invited to make provision for heavy additional expenditure due to Weill reform and national defence. ;

Received December 4, 12.6 a.m. , London, Deeember 8. Mr. Aaquith continued, rtatiag that the granting of ways and means tor supply and service for the year haiHuen intercepted and nullified bv a body admittedly having no power to Increase or diminish a single tax or MBBtltut* an alternative. ( I Amid a storm of Liberal .nd Latwr cheers, he remarked that the House of Commons was unworthy of it* part it it allowed another day to paw without making it clear that it doas not mean to brook THE GREATEST INDIAN IT?

and the most arrogant usurpation whereto for two centuries it bad been asked to submit. He laid •stress on the confusion and embarrassment, the IOM of revenue, and the increase of the country's indebtedness that were the result of the Lords' action, and the conie- ! quent necessity for restoring the borrowI rag powers conferred by the Appropriation Act. Mr. Asquith expressed later on the hope that the ultimate irrecoverable low to the State would not be very great. He scouted the suggestion that the Commons should stoop to the humiliation ot presenting an amended Budget with tlm Lords' criticism and sanction. He contended that only one course was open without breaking the law or Kcnflmg the constitutional principle. He continued:

That is to advise, as we have advised, tiiie Crown to dissolve Parliament at the earliest possible moment. His Majesty King Edward has been graciously pleased to accept the advice. Prolonged cheers from both sides ot the House followed. IF RETURNED TO POWER. He continued that if the Government were returned to power its tlrst duty would be to re-impose all the taxes and duties recently voted. Dwelling upon the constitution, he re marked that the great bulk of constitutional liberties and practice rested upon custom, usage and convention, not upon the barren letter of the law. He brushed aside the argument that the Ml was not really financial, and asserted there vfa's not a clauae therein not connected with the primary purposes of revenue. He emphatically protested against the novel theory that the Bill was not rejected but was merely being referred to the people. If such a claim and precedent were admitted no Liberal Government, he said, would be safe. The conversion of the lx>rds into A PLEBISCITARY ORGAN was ono of the quaintest intention) cf the flay. The presumption always 'is that the members of the Housu ef Commons are freely chosen by the people and represent the people's will. There was no such presumption regarding the House of Lords. He admitted, parentbically, that the presumption in tic "n*c of'CTie House of Commons ought to bo strengthened by SHORTENING THE DURATION OF PARLIAMENT. and more irequent contact with electorates. Mr. Asquith asked the House and tlw constituencies to declare by organ and voice that a free people is to be fonad in the elected representatives of the nation.

MR. BALFOUR'S REPLY. Mr. Balfour criticised the avoidable finance arrangements and the ineonreAlenelng of trade. He taunted the Government on having a paMiou for abstract motions, which neither hurt, encouraged nor frightened anyone, but the resolution was a gross misrepresentation. It ignored the fact that the Commons had in the very original resolution, whereon all its claims were bated, gratuitously ailmitteS that the House of Lords had the right to reject a finance Bill, though not to initiate or amend it.. He hoped the Lords' exercise of it* right would be rare but never abandoned. LIBERALS' MANIFESTO. THE GRAVITY OF THE ISSUES.

London, December The manifesto ol the National Liberal Federation states that the issues involved aro as grave as any in the life-time of the oldest voter, A victory oi the Tory Party would involve the degradation of the House of Commons, tne iggrandisemcne of the House of Lords and a return to protection with its inevitable taxes on food. The electors would have to decide whether the wish to govern themselves or to be governed by a few hundred hereditary peers who have thrown the constitution into the melting pot in order to shift the burden' from wealth, land and liquor to food and the necessaries of life.

NEWSPAPER CRITICISM.

t London, December 2. The Times declares that Mr. AsqiiHh's c resolution embodies the doctrine of the . last four yours, goes much beyond any 1 previous assertion of privileges, and by implication, denies the right of the Lords to have a voice in any legislation tacked to the Budget, It is only incidentally, it says, that the Lords refused supplied this year. What hat WiUly been done is to refer to the country a> quantity of legislation involving novel prineinles, denying the right o( appeals to courts of lair, and establishing an » expensive bureaucracy and arbitrary inquisitorial powers, Mr. Josenh Chamberlain, in a massive fo the tariff demonstration at Shoreditch, said he was counting on the demomcv'of the East End to help In the grent slnieeie before the country. The Omioxition newspapers comment on the rise of British investment securities in consequence of the Lords' action.