CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 19

CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS.

The Spectator thinks that "the strangest thing about the strange and aborlivo constitutional crisis which Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and his colleagues aro trying to force upoii the country is their lack of any just appreciation of what the British people feel and desiro in the matter. What Sir Henry Camp bell-Bannerman and his party fail to understand, is that the country demands, not a second chamber which will be jess of a check upon the House of Commons, but one which will be more, it is quite truo, a.s tho Liberals are always teliirij* us, that the House of Lords acts as a checking body only when the Liberals are in power. This is unquestionably a blot on the constitution. To ri et nd of this blot th& Liberals' propose to abolish the checking power of the House of Lords altogether, and to leave the Houbo of Commons with absolutely unrestricted power and authority. The jJoulo of f.'ommons will havo on'y to sliout iU orders three- times, and with .•> special emphasis, and all- limitations and yeFtrictions must fall at tLi» third summons. Frankly, only Tn the realms of nonsense or in wonderland can buch a conclusion follow from' such premises. Only when two wrongs make a ri&;ht, and when no bread is bntwr Mian half a ]oaf, will it bo possible to arguo that the way to remedy tho inability or un(villineness of the House of Lords -to supervise or check Unionist legislation is to prevent them checking any legislation whatever. T n other words, the Government pioposal is a declaration that the way to get over the difficulty of a brako which will act only on half the hills in a journey is to thiow the brake away altogether."