MR BALFOUR'S MANIFESTO.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXI, Issue 7931, 13 December 1909, Page 4

MR BALFOUR'S MANIFESTO.

LONDON, December 11. Mr Balfour, in a manifesto to his constituents, says that the Government is claiming that the House of Commons ,no matter • how elected, should have uncontrolled power over every class of the community without appeal to the community. The present question was not whether the second chamber could resist the people's declared wishes. In the United States all kinds of property were taxed alike. A two-thirds maiority was required for a measure like the Budget. Moreover, the Senate could reject and the President veto special taxation. The present attack on the House of Lords was the culmination of a long-drawn cpnspiracy. The Government from the first sought not to work xuider the Constitution but to destroy it, making in effect a single chamber, practically like that of the Greeks. The Budget gave tho Government a good opportunity of manoeuvring the House of Lords so tlvtt it must abandon the functions of a second chamber or take a step which would give new life to the single chamber plot. But the people would refuse to consider themselves insulted by being asked their opinion of the Budget, nor would they think that the Lords had gone beyond their duty in asking it. The House of Commons already possessed great powers, beyond those of the Republics of America and France, and in some respects unexampled, but the Government desired that tho House should be independent, not only of the House of Lords, but of the peo- le. There could be no security that a single chamber would vote according to the will of the electors. Tho House of Commons had been returned on the Chinese slavery cry, and could not be assumed to represent the nation's mind on questions of Socialism. A single, chamber was impossible in the region of finance. If there was need for the money to be used for adopting instalments of a Socialist Budget, treating property not according" to amount but origin, vindictively attacking political opponents, then the people had a right to be consulted. That right never could have been exercised if the peers had not used on behalf of the people the powers entrusted to them. He did not say that a change was not required by modification of the House of Lords or a referendum. The House contained men of first eminence in all branches. He did not think that the House should bo a rival House of Commons or completely elective, but its functions could be improved.- Referring to unemployment/ he urged reform of the poor law. Every member of the recent commissionconsidered that the--,. present, law might be " scra>red," but State methods of dealing with destitution would do little to promote labour.. He looked for that to tariff reform, which would stimulate home industry. It alone would contain colonial preference, modify commercial treaties, and secure the home producer against-foreign -competition. It was tho first plank of the Unionist platform. He complained of tho Government's illusory policy of "back to the land." Their.?niethb.ds discouraged private ownership; '■'* except in Ireland, by insisting that;.tenants should become tenants of a public body. There was no farmer who would not prefer a tenancy under one of Mr Lloyd George's dukes. ; At. present he would sfly nothing about the Navy. The situation was grave, arid tho future anxious. He did not think that the pnblie would forget or forfeiv6...^b«7.'ne^genoe*:,wMch:vijßnc6iii'-: aged the I'present ~ ritfaliy. in 'shipbuilding, which all deplored.• ■