SPECTATOR SUMMARY.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXII, Issue 63, 16 March 1910, Page 6

SPECTATOR SUMMARY.

(Week ending January 22, 1910.) COURSE OF THE ELECTIONS. As we write on Friday, enough election results axe known to make it almost certain that the present Government will continue to hold power owing to their alliance with the Irish .Nationalists. It is, of course, impossible to give exact figures, hut in .all probability the majority of 336 in 1906 will be reduced to about 100. This majority, as we have pointed out, will be in no sense homogeneous. Not only will it be mainly derived jEroni the difficult and precarious alliance with the Irish, but, further, it .will rest on the support of some forty .Labor members, who may be expected to prove .anything but easy partners .when they realise their capacity of putting the Government in a minority. No doubt it will be said that,a seation of any party can .always'do this, but remember that in ordinary oases the power of dissatisfied groups to rebel is kept in check hy the sense of party discipline and party loyalty. The Labor party have always given ,us to understand that they owe no Royalty to the Liberal party, which from many points of, view they distrust and .-despise. The notion that .tihey should submit to party discipline, that is, the discipline of the Liberal Whips—is, of course, scouted ,by them as an insult. JUDICAL TIGER'S CLAWS CUT. If the wider aspects of the election are considered without party heat, the results are rather remarkable, and may, we think, serve as a subject for no small satisfaction to men of moderate opinions. To begin ,with, the great feature of the election is that the Radical and Socialistic tiger's teeth have been drawn and its claws out. Though the Liberal Government continues in office, it ,will be very difficult for it to carry legislation of a dangerous description. A party with a vast majority such as the Government held in the last Parliament became a source of .danger owing to the. fact that Mr Asqiiith allowed himself and his policy to be controlled by those restless and irresponsible politicians, Mr Lloyd-George and Mr Winston Churchill. Thb situation now is completely changed. The Liberal majority in the true sense^ —that is, a majority of loyal and' devoted and disciplined followers l —has disappeared, and has been replaced by a composite majority made up of men who have always proved themselves merciless political bargainers—men .who can only be retained by political payments which are certain to imperil the position of those who make .them.

Tariff -reformers disappointed. If tlie election is looked at from .the point of view of the extreme '.Tariff Reformers, it can hardly be said to be satisfactory. No doubt, owing to the fa/ot that they ha,ve been reinforced by the very large number of moderate men "who accept the Spectator policy, and who have chosen the lesser of the two evils, and also no doubt owing to conversions to their policy, the Tariff Reform vote has enormously increased. At the same time, at an election which may fairly be regarded as the high-water mark of Tariff Reform, nothing like enough votes haye been secured to accomplish tlie .policy. To carry out the system of Preference and -Protection—something very different, we may remark, from the policy of tariffs for revenue—a ilarge anid homogeneous majority is required. But such a majority is no more likely to be obtained in this country than a solid majority for Socialism. To put the net results of the elections into a sentence, the couaitry has decided to take away from the Liberals their .power of doing harm through .Socialistic legislation, and at the same time has declared its unwillingness fundamentally to alter our present fiscal system.

THE LOEDS' POWER OF VETO. That invaluable person, the Scottish heckler, elicited a very signifi.oaiit and important declaration from Mr Asquith on Wednesday. Asked how lie intended to improve the House of Lords, Mr Asquith replied : "It is not proposed to improve it at all, bint to limit its veto." .Conld anything be plainer than this .admission that the Government intend to bring .about what is virtually a single-Chamber system ? Yet Mr Asquith denied that he supported the policy of .a single-Chamber Government. Further questions elicited .the statement that Mr Asquith proposes to attain his end by passing an Act of Parliament limiting the veto of the House of Lords to the lifetime of a single Parliament. In this context it is worth recalling the words used in the Prime Minister's Albert Hall speech on December 10, 1909: "The will of the people as deliberately expressed by their elected representatives must, within the 'limits of the lifetime of a single Parliament, be made effective." This cleanly does not mean the carrying over of any measure opposed by the Lords from one Parliament to another. The Second Chamber is to be retained with all its imperfections as an excuse for .crippling it altogether. On Thursday he was again interrogated on the same subject. "Another elector: 'Will Mr Asquith tell us what he is prepared to do in the event of the House of Lords refusing to pass a Bill sent to them limiting their veto.' Mr Asquith : 'No, I will not. .We shall wait and see.' " Mr Asquith 's answer reminds us of that of

the London- street urchin when asked by the magistrate if he knew where he woiild go if he did not speak the truth—"l don't know, you don't know, nor none of us don't know." FRENCH JUDICIAL PROCEDURE TQie Bill for the reform of' French judicial procedure was published in Paris on. Thursday week. The first object of the Bill, The Times correspondent says, is the suppression of the preliminary interrogation by the Judge on the basis of the written indictment. This interrogatory has, of course, almost invariably involved the Judge in the manifestation of personal impressions before any evidence had been produced. It is not the intention of the Bill, however, to make the Judge a mute spectator, and the old practice of the statement of the charge by the Public Prosecutor will be reintroduced. CHINESE PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLIES. The Times of Thursday contains from its Pekin correspondent an account of the first Session of the Chinese "Provincial Assemblies. They were elected on a, limited franchise, and the subjects open to discussion are restricted. Procedure was on the Western model, each subject being submitted to three readings. Places were provided for the reporters of local newspapers, and the debates were daily recorded. The members received payment at a low rate as well as their travelling expenses. The correspondent praises in particular the address of the Acting-Gover-nor of Shantung, who was formerly Chinese Minister in Paris and Berlin. He advised the members of the Shantung Assembly never to be afraid of adverse criticism, and he eulogised the conduct of Yuan Shihkai, who when Governor of Shantung suppressed the "Boxer" movement in his province. This reference to Yuan Shih-kai Avas believed to have Imperial approval, and therefore attracted wide notice.