THE CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1159, 21 June 1911, Page 8

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS.

,—0 _ ORDER OF. BUSINESS. By Telecraph—Prqss Association-Oopyrieht London, Juno IS. It is reported that the Government does not intend to pass the Finance Bill in the Commons until after the issue raised by the Parliament Veto Bill has been settled. THE GOVERNMENT'S PLANS. In a speech at Manchester on May 6, Mr. Asqnith said:-"A properly constituted Second Chamber may, and must, in a democratic country, he a useful institution, because it gives opportunity not for overruling the representative body not for competing with it as though it possessed the same-degree, or anything like the same degree, of authority, not as though it were ill any sense a co-ordinato institution, but- it gives opportunities, in the course of legislation, lor revision for consultation, and, in cows of necessity,, for dclny. . . "From that statement, wliich [ believe will have tho assent of my fellow Liberals in this hall and outside it, follows, in our view,'that any kind of Second Chamber which is constructed 1 must be small in number, that- it must not rest upon an hereditary basis—(cheer-.) —that it must not claim anything in the ! nature of co-ordinate or competing au- : thority, and that it must not bo pre- ' dominantly one-sided and partisan. ■ "None of us wlio have sat during these years at Westminster, can have, failed to ■ appreciate more than ever in these years the congestion and overcrowding of Par- ' liament on every hand. The machine : needs complete overhauling. The Liberal policy in these matters seems to me to ■ be clear. First of all, we have got to 1 settle tho relations between our two [ Chambers. We have then to see to the delegation of local affairs to the localities which they really concern. We want as part of tho jionna! working of out Con- - stitution a reformed Second Chamber upon the basis and lines I have indil cated. We want, and not !e=s urgently, a truly representative First Chamber in 0 which'pliiral voting will bo in the past " tense. Wo want, and you cannot get f( " upon rational and statesmanlike line? B unlit theso changes have been accom--5 plished, a real redistribution of the decc toral area."