THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1910. THE BRITISH GRIP ON THE CONSTITUTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9689, 13 January 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1910. THE BRITISH GRIP ON THE CONSTITUTION.

One interesting aspect of the present i appeal to the electors of the United Kingdom is the fact that it Will be ('■virtually a test of the question whether the nation has in any serious degree lost its appreciation of ' the grip on the Constitution. The constitutional supposition is that, broadly, the nation governs itself through the House of Commons. The King reigns, but does not govern, though there are well recognised ways in which, by the nation's assumed consent, he may help the Government, especially in promoting 1 the peace of the world and upholding the dignity of the Empire. As a monarch, he has a peculiar influence which is not possessed by his Ministers, and he sometimes uses it, but never except with their knowledge and concurrence. Happily, * the current controversy, does not . touch the King at any visible point. • It is a singular proof of his wißdom and constitutional aloofness that so . fierce a war may be raging around him without involving him ever so slightly. The struggle is wholly between the Lords and the Commons. The Lords' notion of the veto is one which amounts to reasserting powers which were reluctantly relinquished generations ago. Apart from the Lloyd-George Budget, the veto during recent years has been exercised so frequently as to make the House of Lords the una3bamed and unafraid ally of one of the parties in the House of Commons. So the nation is paralysed. The choosing of a House of Commons is the constitutional ; provision for an expression of the nation's mind and will. But if the decisions of this House can be set at naught by the other House, then the nation is humiliated and defeated. It cannot get the legislation it wants and demands. Only one of the two [ big parties can legislate. If the Tories have a majority of one in the House of Commons they can crowd measures on to the Statute book. If the Liberals,have a ten to one majority in the House of Commons they can be effectually blocked by the Tory majority in the House of Lords. It is an intolerable po-i-

tion. , And it is not bettered by the House of Lords saying that it will not pass a bi'l or a budget until the nation has been consulted. Admit that pretension, and the House of Commons will have to do its work under the threat of penal dissolutions. It would amount to placing the House of Commons—that is to say, the nation's House in the power of the hereditary House of Lords. Long ago the nation emancipated itself from the tyranny of the irresponsible House. In the 20th century that House tries to revive it. Have the people forgotten? Will the people consent? To ask such questions is to ask if the people have lost their grip on the Constitution. Has their sense of its value weakened, and their recollection of what it cost become dim? That is the incomparable issue which awaits the national verdict.