The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26. IMPERIAL POLITICAL CRISIS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 325, 26 February 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26. IMPERIAL POLITICAL CRISIS.

At the moment the Imperial Government seems to be faced with a crisis not -less intense than that which a few months ago precipitated a dissolution. -Mr. Asquith, with the support of the Labor Party and the Nationalists, has to all intents and purposes been given the opportunity, for which he appealed to the country, to reform the House of Lords, but presumably he has not yet devised any scheme of reform that cau unite his forces sufficiently to warrant .its passage through the House of Commons. Mr. Redmond holds the key oi the position, and naturally is not going to surrender his stronghold without a quid pro quo. The Nationalists arc not concerned so much with the schemes of reform of the Upper House, as with the limitation 0 f the Lords' veto, whidi they demand as the price of their sup- : port oi the Government. Mr. Asquith has certainly"" promised an opportunity for affirming the desirability of limiting the Lords' power to veto the Commons' will, but Mr. Redmond, not without •some justification, claiming that his party had been misled as to the Government's attitude on the reform scheme, demands an assurance that the veto will be abolished. The problem that Eas now to be definitely settled one way or the other is how far the moderate who desire to see the Lords reformed are prepared to go towards meeting the wishes oi the extreme Radicals and Nationalists who demand the abolition of the veto. Neither of the two latter parties desires to see the Government forced into the position of .being unable to carry on; the possibiliy of another general election is as distasteful to them as to the main parties. Mr. Asquith, no doubt, does not Feel justified in going to the extreme that he may have attempted had the country given him the mandate he masked for. The position has further .been altered somewhat by the disposition evinced by the leaders of the Upper •House to alter their constitution. No serious attention need be given to the demands of the extremists ior the abolition of the, Second Chamber; the situation that has arisen, of a third party being in the position of dictating terms to- the Government and thus probably .securing the passage of legislation, on terms, that otherwise would 'not be .considered, provides the soundest of .arguments why an independent body should be preserved to revise the legal &ni constitutional imperfections that ■would certainly be created. Compacts mads under stress of such circumstances could not permanently advance the interests oi any of the parties concerned. There is, however, no possibility of the bi-cameral system being discarded by ,the mother of Parliaments. Equally there is, at present at least, nothing to indicate the Lords' veto being withdrawn, although in its commitment to legal phraseology, it is not unlikely that the right of the Peers to challenge the paramountcy of the House of Com..moils in matters of finance will be thoroughly restricted. The Nationalists, naturally, have no desire to weaken on a point that means so much to them. The granting of Home Rule by the Lower House, certainly seems to he within grasp, and it is almost equally certain that the House of Lords, as at present constituted, would reject it. A definite declaration of the power of .veto the. Lords may exercise in such a ease—in the event of the Bill being "sent up" a second time—is ot the most .vital importance to them and to Ireland. Without resort to the drastic recourse of abolishing the discretionary power of the Lords, the object of the reformers would surely be achieved, though perhaps not so quickly, by modernising the. constitution of the Lords to bring it more into sympathy with the people. The abolishing of the hereditary right would be the greatest step that could be made in any scheme of selection, the hereditary principle and the separate church representation would be ended, and the selected House would be composed of the foremost and wisest of Britain's statesmen class. The present weakness oi the House ot Lords would thus be removed, and in its place would arise a legislative chamber which for concentrated wisdom, ability and power would rank easily first amongst the governing assemblies of the world. Meantime a definite pronouncement of Mr. Asquith's proposals is eagerly awaited, for on it assuredly rests the fate of the present Parliament.