Evening Post. MONDAY, MARCH 28, 1910.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 72, 28 March 1910, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY, MARCH 28, 1910.

THE VETO RESOLUTIONS. Sir Charles Dilke's cheerful statement with regard to Mr. Asquith's veto resolutions, that "the sky is blue as blue can be," is not lo be taken as meaning that, in tho opinion even of the most sanguine Radical, the Government is atthe end of all its troubles, or even within measurable distance of it. A Licensing BiH to please all parties might be de.scribed as a "small order" ia comparison with a measure for the curtailment of the power of the Lords which will receive the approval of the Lords themselves. Failing the construction of such a plainly impossible measure, the Government is entirely at the mercy of the Lords, a position which is suggestive rather of bine ruin than of blue sky. The determination of the Government to resign if it cannot carry through the substance of its veto resolutions to the Statute-book dooms it to an early grave, but tho joint effect of the Premier's declaration on tho subject in his.' Albert Hall speech and of the comparatively small majority by which the ronatitu«ncir* merited the action of'thsLomU in r»i*otloi tba Budget WM-ta;

make this result inevitable. In any event, the change in th© position which 'Sir Charles Dilke attributes to the veto cmoiutiona is that they will prevent Minister* from going to their poHiictd , graves as men without hope. The dismal feature of the proceedings of the last four or five weeks is that tbey have developed such fundamental differences, not merely between the Government and the two independent parties without which it cannot last a single day under existing conditions, but even between the Government and | a large and active section of ita f ollowI ing, that utter disaster appeared inevitable. To go to the country with these differences unadjusted and an absolutely barren record would be to expose the democratic forces to the same sort of sweeping calamity that overwhelmed their opponents at the general election of 1906. The veto resolutions of which Mr. Asquith has given notice have at any rate provided a temporary rallying-point for the army of progress. Radicals and Whigs, Nationalists and | Labour men, can all agree with a programme* which proposes to reduce the Parliamentary term from seven years to five, to deprive the Lords of the power either to destroy or to mutilate Money Bills, and to effect a drastic reduction in their power to obstruct general legislation. On the first two points the Government should be able to rely on an absolutely solid anti-Unionist vote, which would mean a majority of about 120. The third point bristles with details as to which there may be an infinite divergence of opinion, even among those who are in close agreement with regard to the general object. The defects which are said to be giving great satisfaction to the Unionists can, at any rate, be easily remedied. To allow the Lords to exercise all their old power as long as they cloak it with the formula of reference to the people instead of rejection would be to give them carte blanche to treat every other Budget exactly as they did the last one. The second resolution is designed to prevent the Peers from evading the issue in another way, by postponing or failing' to deal with a measure till the last month of the sesssion instead of rejecting it. The Government will have done much if it carries these resolutions, whether amended or not, for, after all, a resolution Li an affirmation of a principle, and not a Bill; but the main trouble will be merely postponed. The resolutions, which will no doubt be contemptuously rejected or ignored by the Lords, would in any event require a Bill to make them effective, and at thai stage, if not earlier, the constructive proposals of the Government must be unfolded. The Budget has also to be dealt with. Of all the more hopeful news which has recently reached us, we regard the statement that an informal understanding has been arrived at which practically ensures the passing of the Budget as the most important. We cannot see that without the Budget all the peer-baiting or Parliamentary jockeying in tho world will prevent tho Liberals from presenting a very empty* handed appearance before the electors.