SPECTATOR SUMMARY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 71, 26 March 1910, Page 12

SPECTATOR SUMMARY.

week ending Saturday, 6th F«b.) THE GENERAL ELECTION. The General Election of 1910 has passed into history. The first fact that strikes one in the figures is that the present Government can only command a majority of tho House if it can count upon the support of the Labour MemI bers and the Nationalist*. How far is it able to do this? That it can do so in regard to an isolated vote upon the House of Lords is clear. But between a majority on a single question and the steady majorities which are needed to keep a Government in power there is a very great difference. Certainly th© Independent Nationalists are not to be reckoned upon as forming part oi such a majority. On the contrary, if we ar« to jadge by their account of themselves, they must in no sense be taken as capable of forming any kind of alliance or working understanding with the Unionists, whom they unquestionably hate even worse than they hate the Liberals. INDEPENDENT NATIONALISTS. No doubt a group of ten ia not a very large group; but the importance of the Independent Nationalists is not to be reckoned by mere numbers, but by their power of influencing the bigger group. We venture to say that though no doubt Mr. Redmond and his followers would like very much to carry out loyally the bargain that they have made with the Liberals, they will find the task exceedingly difficult. If they give the Liberal! a general and hearty support, they will be held up daily and hourly as the betrayers of Ireland. If the Independent Nationalists were capable of doing nothing but using hard words, this would not perhaps matter much; but remember that the power of tie Independent Nationalists was shown not merely in the tan constituencies which actually preferred them to Official Nationalist candidates. In a. considerable number of other constituencies the Independent Nationalists, to the astonishment of the I Redmondites, showed a great deal of | strength. We venture to say, indeed, that at least twenty Nationalists know that if they cannot show independence of the Liberals and make some answer to the charge of subserviency, they will greatly endanger their seats, and in all probability lose them should there bo another General Election before the year is out. THE LABOUR GROUP. We must next ask what amount of reliance for working majorities can be placed upon the Labour group. The answer is hardly more satisfactory from the Liberal point of view. The Labour Leader, the organ of the Labour Party, deals with the position in the following strain: "The Labour Party is as absolutely independent in its constitution and action as the Irish. It will have the power of destroying the Government; and while it will not wish to do so if Mr. Asquith is faithful to his promise, its support can only be counted upon for a resolutely democratic course of action. The Labour members have stood not for the reform, but for the abolition, of the House of Lords. There is no such body of opinion in favour of a strengthening of the Idler's House, and any step in that direction must be combated with all our strength." CONFLICTING ISSUES. We may note in regard to these threats that, even if the majority of the Cabinet could be induced to take what Americans would call "the shirtsleeve" view of how the problem of the House of Lords should be approached, the Liberal difficulties would not be at an end. There is still a considerable section of moderates in the Liberal Party, and they, we may be sure, will not agree without protest to the notion that tho Labour group is to dictate the policy of the Liberal Party in this vital matter. In addition, there vie a good many Liberals who, though they must not be regarded as moderates, strongly resent the domination of the Labour members. In truth, Mr. Asquith's trouble will be the trouble that meets all Governments which have to rely upon the support of groups rather than of a homogeneous political party. He will not be able to please one group without displeasing another. No doubt these difficulties can, and often are, surmounted in practice by an adroit Parliamentary manipulator, and it is possible, therefore, that Mr. Asquith may be able to form a bloc. Unquestionably he will be assisted in this work by the desire, which is at present very strong, to avoid another General Election. Nevertheless the prospect before him is anything but unclouded. THE HOUSE OF LORDS. We may note here our satisfaction that The Times is throwing open its column* to a discussion of the reform of the House of Lords, a discussion which is bound to prove not only interesting but useful. Our object, we may say frankly, is to secure as strong a Second Chamber as the House of Lords will allow us to obtain. For ourselves, and here we believe we speak for the great majority of our readers, what we should prefer in the abstract would be a Second Chamber like the Senate of the United States or of France, a body which would feel that it had quite as strong and independent a position as the House of Commons, and would not be obliged, as the House of Lords so often feels it is obliged, to swallow a great deal of bad legislation because it is not strong enough, to resist it. For example, a body like the French Semite would certainly have refused to pass the Trade Disputes Bill, the Old-Age Pensions Bill in the form in/ which it was sent vp —i.e., based on non> contributory principled —and the Mineru' Eight Hours Bill. The country has be<-n saddled with these three measures hecaiiho of the weakness of the Houfe ojf Lords. But to make a Second House, of this powerful kind it would be necessary to nave recourse to some such plan, as that which we have from tin>» to time discussed in the Spectator—a H/ouse, say, of two hundred members chosen under a system of proportional representation from equal electoral areas ing, say, ten members apiece. It is useless, however, to discuss arjy such scheme, for the House of Commpfur will never bridle itself in this way. The best the House of Commons will let vis have will be a reform of the House of Lords, and we venture to say that in this reformed House of Lords tho ljoreditary element will be maintained by 'the Commons in order that in the c&re of future friction they can always p<»iirt to that element as an argument thai the will of the popularly elected Hou je must prevail.

Have you observed anything special about the newly-minted, coins —pennies chiefly —that are going the rounds just now? asks the London Daily Chronicle. Take one (take two, i f nobody is looking) and place it undor a subdued light, head downwards. L'»ok cavefsrily with oblique glance, and you will see two things at once. The je you will see upon the "tail," or Britannia side, of tho bright penny, the »oloar outline of tho Royal profile, wh'jbh is, of course, on the other side of the roin. This may be due to heavy stamping, or to some other detail in *Aie new die. Anyhow, this hint may «#.** you htviog to look twiosVAtuA. pean y.