BRITISH POLITICS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13613, 23 December 1909, Page 7

BRITISH POLITICS.

A WEIGHTY DELIVERANCE.

United Press A-fociation—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, December 21. Lord St. Aldwyn. in a letter to n correspondent, referring to his silence during the Budget debate, says:—"l was silent because nothing I could say would have prevented the rejection d the Budget, and I did not care to argue .-.gainst my own side. The wisest Conservative leaders of the past always held that the only ground on which the Lords could properly reject a Finance Bill was on account of tacking a policy measure to financial proposals. I see nothing in the actual proposals of the Bill so foreign to finance for the year as to justify the rejection on tlu ground of tacking, no- can the proposals, whatever their advocates have said, be properly described as

Socialistic or revolutionary. The imposition of small duties on imported articles of large consumption would have been financially sounder, and less injurious to the working classes than some of the excessive direct taxation included in the Budget. It would be wronn to infer from my silence that I am on the Government's side. The Government now propose to mako the House of Lords. impotent except for twelve months. Then Home Rule, disondowment of churches, universal suffrage, and every other Radical nostrum will be passed into law by a caucus-governed majority in a gagged House of Commons. This would mean a disposition to undermine popular government, and therefore I advise the electors to vote against the Government."