The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 1910. THE BRITISH ELECTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 26, 31 January 1910, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 1910. THE BRITISH ELECTIONS.

— ■ '. for the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance. And the good that tne can da.

The latest election returns confirm in a remarkable manner the conjectures emanating from a great many distinct sources to the effect that the end of the struggle would find the two great parties evenly balanced. According to the "Observer," which we may regard as an authority likely to be well informed on this question, the Unionists will have exactly as many seats as the Liberals in the new House of Commons; and comparing the relative strength of the two parties in last Parliament, this means that the Unionists have won 127 seats from their opponents while the Liberals have secured only 21 Unionist seats. This might' suggest at first sight that the Unionists are in an extremely strong position. But it must not be forgotten that so far as the powers of the House of Lords are concerned, the Liberals can depend upon the support of the 40 Labour mem<ber3,and upon the great majority of the Nationals ist party, of whom only 9 are classed as Independent. The total working majority of the Liberals in the new House may thus be anything over a hundred, and considering all the circumstances of the case, the Liberals have very little reason to be dissatisfied with the outcome of the contest.

It is possible that some of our readers may be inclined to think that considering the large gains secured .by the Unions ists, we are easily consoled for the Liberal losses. But most colonials ioiget that in a general election at Home not only ie it almost impossible to put a single clear issue before the people, but that the people themselves have only limited and inadequate power to decide the question. It ought to be universally understood that the electoral system at Homo is far removed from the democratic ideal of adult franchise. Not only does the property qualification throw the preponderant influence in the counties and certain boroughs into the hands of the wealthier classes, but the personal qualification excludes a large number of the poorest classes altogether. "Every inhabitant ocoupier who has -for twelve months -within the United Kingdom inhabited a rated dwellinghouse for which the rates have been paid ie entitled to registration, and lodgers occupying for twelve months the same lodgings of the value of £10 a-year, may have a vote." But it is easy to see that such a franchise is very different from our own democratic system with its "one man one vote" basis; and as a matter of fact only one-sixth of the .population of the United Kingdom has the right to vote. Under such conditions it is remarkable that the voice of the masses should be able to make itself heard so distinctly and forcibly in a contest in which all the advantages are on the other side.

But it is still more extraordinary that the democratic elements in the State should be able to hold their own. in political conflicts, when -we come to consider the of the opposition that they have to face. Matters have so arranged themselves that in this struggle the supporters of the rights of the Commons against the Lords find arrayed ngainst them with few individual exceptions the nobility of England, the great landowners, the -wealthy capitalists, the Ariglioan Church, and the liquor Trade. Everybody knows that -the dukes, the landlords, and the financiers have made common cause against the policy which is attempting to transfer to their shoulders a reasonable share of the fiscal burdens that their poorer neighbours have •carried so long. The Church of England, in its hatred of the new Education system, which ie striving ing to break down the Anglican monopoly of educational influence and authority, and in its fear of Disestablishment is bitterly hostile to the Liberate; while the brewers and their friends, remembering that Mr. Asquith's bill would have shut up at least 30,000 public houses within 21 years and would have introduced the dreaded principle of Local Option to control the trade, have made common cause with the bishops, the dukes, and the city men against the Budget and its supporters. It would be difficult to conceive a more powerful combination of social, financial and political influences than those allied to defeat the Liberals; and no more convincing proof of the true strength of British Liberalism could be desired than the fact that Mr. Asquith and his followers have emerged from this desperate struggle unbeaten, and that, they are now in a position to enforce the will of the people upon the reluctant Lord*.