Reform of the Lords

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 196, 28 November 1910, Page 5

Reform of the Lords

THE CONSTITUTION STRUGGLE. "BLUE BLOOD. AND BLUE FUNK.'' THE LORDS' REFORM FROM WITHIN. 3y Cable—Press Association—Copyright. London, November 25. At the National Liberal Conference, Mr. Ellis Griffiths. M.P. for Anglesea. moved denouncing the Lords' proposed reform as a sham due to panic. The Lords, he said, not only represented blue Wood, but blue funk. The Government has modified the taxation form previously issued, and English publicans will now furnish totals, ■while certain other information is •waived if it cannot be supplied without inconvenience. The Liberal Unionist Council of Glasgow adopted Mr. Chamberlain's resolution expressing satisfaction at the action of the Lords in promoting their own reform, also a resolution urging the immediate development of preferential arrangements with the established oversea dominions.

Mr. 0. Lansburv, Labor candidate for Mile End, in his election address, says: "We should tax and secure for the use of the people all socially-cjeated land values, as well as wealth not subject to snper-ineome tax."

The Daily Mail points out that Mr. Lansbury says in effect that all income over £sooo—namely, over a Minister's salary should be confiscated to the State.

Lord Courtney, in the House of Lords, said electoral reform in the House of Commons was necessary to secure proper representation of the will of the nation. Many Liberals hesitated in the absence of this to accept the Parliament Bill. He approved the referendum as a democratic institution. TOO EASY OX THE SUFFRAGISTS. London, November 25. Sir A. De Rutzen, the London magistrate, has twice protested against the Home Office withdrawing prosecutions on the ground that such action is a further incentive to violence, and does not give those arrested an opportunity of disproving the charges. Three women were sentenced to two months' for damaging? Government offices. Another suffragist has been arrested for breaking the windows of the Premier's residence.

Doctors have ordered Mr. Birrell three weeks rest, and he is dictating speeches to his constituents in bed. IS THE PREMIER CONSISTENT! London, November 25. A Home Office return shows that Mr. Disraeli created 35 peers, Mr. Gladstone 85, Lord Salisbury !)7, Lord Rosebery 9, Mr. Balfour 18, Sir Henry CampbellBannerman and Mr. Asquith 43. Lord Rothschild, in a letter to the Jews of Manchester, urges them to vote for the Unionists. Personally, heaccepts Mr. Balfour's assurance that food will not cost more under tariff reform, apart from the fact that the colonies and India are in a position to provide nearly all that is required. LORD LANSDOWNE AT GLASGOW. COMMONS' INDEPENDENCE IMPUGNED. Received 27, 5.5 p.m.

London, November 26. Lord Lansdowne, at Glasgow, said the last four Liberal Administrations had created 136 peers. In the Budget division in 1909 only 75 toed the line. Wliat happened to the remainder? They were unable to stomach the Government's Radical and Socialist diet. Mr. Churchill's statement that Liberal legislation encountered a black wall of refusal in the Lords was an unpardonable misstatement. Out of 230 measures in the last four years only six were rejected by the Lords, and these rejections were solely for the purpose of referring them to the judgment of the people. He referred to Lord Carrington's statement that there had never been a time when such a large amount of Liberal legislation had been adopted. The whole bother arose through the rejection of the education, licensing and finance proposals. Neither the second nor the third Education Bill was sent near the Lords. The Licensing Bill was most ruthless and vindictive legislation, and it was thrown out on its merits. The Government took care to have no election on that Bill. The Commons were overworked, and were passing more and more under the domination of the party machine, which controlled groups ready to combine for sinister purposes. He was prepared to admit the preponderance of the Commons in finance, but the Government denied ,the Lords almost ail opportunity of dealing with other fields of legislation.

On November 22, 1000, Lord T-ansdowne moved in the House of Lords an amendment to thp Finance Bill: "That this House is not justified in giving its consent to this Bill until it has been submitted to the judgment of the country." The amendment was carried by 300 to 75. and it was upon that decision that Mr. Asquith went to the country. SPEECH BY MR. JOHN BURNS. THE LORDS CHARGED WITH SELFINTEREST. HIS SUGGESTION ON THE IRISH DIFFICULTY. Received 27, 5.5 p.m. London, November 26.

Mr. John Burns, in an election address, declared that the House of Lords only obstructs the people's Parliament when in the main their interests or social class privileges are threatened. The Lords enjoyed favors, offices and emoluments fiat should go to the most capable and worthy of all classes. Mr. Burns advocates such legislative independence as

vive her industries, maintain her population, and stimulate social and agrarian pro>perity in accordance with Irish ideas, the Imperial supremacy of the Federal British Parliament remaining inviolate as regards imperial matters. He also advocates adult suffrage for both men and women. Mr. Alfred Lyttelton, speaking at Goole, in Yorkshire, denounced this stampede election to prevent the people fully apprehending the disastrous consequences of a wrong decision. Mr. Redmond's money from foreigners was being used to impose upon the English people a revolution that they did not want. SPEECH BY BRITAIN'S PREMIER.

PEOPLE'S REPRESENTATIVES MUST BE SUPREME. REMARKABLE CONVERSION OF THE PEERS. Received 27, 5.5 p.m. London, November 2G. Mr. Asquith, speaking at Hull, was frequently interrupted by Supragettcs. He declared that the election was the most momentous in British history. The Veto Conference having failed, ought they to waste another twelve months over a futile enterprise? Liberal legislation under existing conditions was a hopeless task. The electors, at any rate, were not under the domination of Mr. Redmond, or compelled to take any particular line.

The conversion of the Lords to the referendum was the most remarkable thing in political history. The Lords' resolutions would destroy the basis of Government by representation. He added that democracy without representation would soon degenerate into anarchy or Caesarism. He denied that the Liberals had planned or schemed for a single chamber. Their plan was not put forward as a final solution, but as the least that was necessary for real progress. He repeated his Albert Hall statement in favor of self-government for Ireland, freeing the Imperial Parliament of much local work. He believed the Government's efforts would have the sympathy of an overwhelming majority in the oversea dominions, who had learned how easy it is to combine local autonomy with Imperial loyalty.

He urged the electorates to concentrate on the more immediate task of winning fair play for Liberal legislation. They must make the people, through their representatives, really and effectively supreme in legislation. All other issues, however multifarious, were subordinate. He condemned the referendum. It would impair, if not destroy, the sense of Parliamentary responsibility. He demanded the key for unlocking the gate of the people's rights. DISTRUST OF THE DEMOCRACY. Received 27, 5.5 p.m. London, November 27. Mr. Austen Chamberlain, addressing the Glasgow Unionist Council, said the more democratic the country the greater securities- were needed, lest those arrogating to themselves the right to speak in the people's name should betray the people's cause.

A CONSERVATIVE'S CONTRIBUTION. ON THE ATTITUDE OF IRISHMEN. Received 27, 5.5 p.m. London, November 27. Mr. Carson, speaking at Liverpool, said the Government loathed that their measures should be referred to the people. The Lords had compelled them to refer the Budget. After the election, Parliament waited for months, but there was no Budget, because Mr. Redmond had to be squared. They bribed Mr. Redmond to let the Budget pass, but Ireland was determined there should be no second Budget, and to-day the Government dare not send "form 4" to Ireland. Irishmen had double the money in the bank to-day, as compared with twenty years ago, but they only gave Mr. Redmond pence where the Americans gave dollars. The real question before the country was whether there shall be autocracy on any scratch majority of the Commons. He foretold that the men of the North of Ireland would never yield to the dominancy of the South. A TWO MINUTES' SESSION. THE LORDS OUTWITTED. Received 27, 5.5 p.m. London, November 26. The House tof Commons sat for two minutes. The brevity of the Session upset the Peers' calculations, and when the clerk appeared with Lord Lansdowne's resolutions he 'found the House had risen. The Lords' communications will duly appear in the journals of the House of Commons. TWITTING THE LORDS. Received 28.. 12.40 a.m. London, November 27. Mr. C. E. Bobhouse, in his election address, says: "Cowed by the Liberal triumph at the polls, the Peers passed the Budget which they previously denounced. But they declare that their submission referred to the Budget alone. Let the country now teach them that their day is over. We must also maintain Freetrade, whereon our commercial supremacy and political liberties depend for freedom from financial, or even political, trusts.