THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1910. THE LORDS AND THE LIBERALS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9991, 10 March 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1910. THE LORDS AND THE LIBERALS.

With parties so closely divided in the House of Commons, every new line of cleavage that appears in the composite force nominally under Mr Asquith's leadership must necessarily render the operation of driving the Peers from their entrenchments more difficult. It is plain (hat a crisis is rapidly approaching, and in spite of I the rumours that Mr Asquith has informed the King that in view of the difficulties in the way of reconstruct- ! ing the House of Lords he is concentrating his Parliamentary force on the Veto Bill, it is difficult to see bow tte main problem can now be solved in any other way than by a compromise. The Liberal party in Great j Britain, like the Church of England, embraces men of widely divergent opinions, between the Radical "stalwarts," who are avowedly Single Chamber men, and moderates like Colonel Seely who advocate an elective second Chamber there is a great political gulf fixed, and that gulf runs iis?ht through the party, j It is Mr Asquith's task* to find a policy which will hold ttia support of the extremis!;-! without alienating the moderates—and vice versa. To keep Labour men of the t\pe of Mr Ramsay Macdonald if political Jine | with Colonel Sed'.'s at' ts;e I.i^sra]

party is an achievement that might well tax the leadership of the roost I astute parliamentary tactician. But in addition, the Prime Minister must p obtain the assistance of the Irish Nationalists if he is to carry his Veto proposals. Against this collec- g tion of virtually independent sec- r tions —the Labourites, the Radicals, j the moderate Liberals, and the ( divided Irishmen—stands a formid- £ able united Opposition in the House ( of Commons, and a House of Lords , which is prepared even to reform it- ( self rather than submit to any in- , terference with its Veto. Granting ( that Mr Asquith has justice and commonsense on Ins side, that the continuance of the Veto of the House of Lords is a preposterous anachronism, and that parliamentary government is a farce as long as the will of the people can always be overruled by an hereditary caste, still only an optimist can now see a reasonable prospect of a decisive victory lor the cause of government by the people in the present condition of parties in the House of Commons. Innumerable schemes of reconstructing the House of Lords have already bkjen put forward, several of the projected constitutions emanating from members of that august . body itself. But it is probably safe to say that a majority of Mr Asquith's followers have no desire whatever to see the House of Lords reformed on an elective basis unless at the same time its power of Veto is 9 strictly limited. A reformed House of Lords would mean a Second Chamber fortified against attack, and more powerful to resist the will of the Commons than the existing Chamber. The Unionist press in " Great Britiam, of course, declares that the abolition of the Veto would - be tantamount tc the establishment of the Single Chamber principle, and that the Government would court defeat at the next general election if it put forward such a proposal. Lord Lansdowne put the case in the same 0 way when he submitted the question to a popular audience: "Are you in f ivor of one Chamber or two?" It N wjs a very safe question to submit to an average audience of British '» electors, but it did not correctly represent the position. Mr Asquith's avowed policy is not to abolish but to limit the Veto. A suspensory Veto for the House of Lords in cases of legislation, and neither Veto nor power of amendment in j cases of taxation —these must be the id _ , main heads of the Government s policy if Mr Asquith has really de- ~~ termined to put the fortunes of Liberalism to the touch, as cable messages seem to indicate. Such a policy 0r should command the support of those who genuinely sympathise with the ~ cause of popular government, but it 1( j seems scarcely possible that the new 0- parliamentay forces of Liberalism, elected on such a multiplicity of divergent party cries, and therefore ;s weakened by disunion/ will be strong enough to give effect to Mr ~ Asquith's programme. The shadow of a second geyeral election has alls ready fallen upon the situation. It can be seen and felt in the utterances ;o of the leaders.