The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, MARCH 6. 1911. THE LORDS AND THE PEOPLE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 55, 6 March 1911, Page 4

The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, MARCH 6. 1911. THE LORDS AND THE PEOPLE.

The first stage .in the history of the now famous Parliament. Bill wa? ended on Thursday last, when theßill passed its V second reading by a maioritv of 125. The taking of the !S wa,sieded ta>J3*>?; portant and memorable by She Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister respectively. Mr Balfour's plea for a partial ration of the hereditary principle inJbhe constitution of'the House of .Lords was the most' important in,, .^ speech. TheLeaderof the Opposition has at last shown himself in his true colors. He is'an out-and-out supporter of the hereditary principle— the very principle, be^it remembered, that a majority of the Lords themselves , have agreed to renounce. We cannot conceive it to be possible jf.much less probable, that the British people will applaud Mr Balfour's contention that, because a man is the sow of his father.; or' the grandson- of. his grandfather he is; therefore entitled to a seat in a revising Chamber. Mr J3aifoiv1 is "never weary of declaring that he wants to? see a thoroughly efficient Cbr-nber, bilt by his espousal of the her .ditafy Hprinciple he is opposing th- right of, the people to have a say in the composition of the Chamber which is to' revise—or i-eject—mea-sures passed by its elected representativesi The position which the Tory leader has'so unwisely chosen to take tip is throughly unsound and completely ou^ of sympathy with the prevailing democratic spirit of the age. Once; again!,' and. this time in most offensive" phraseology, did Mr Balfour accuse the Government of being coerced by the Irish. So long as the Irish peoi>le* elect representatives to "the' British Parliament, just as do the Scots and the Welsh, that Parliament must he considered as a whole, and the decisions arrived at by a majority 4 of its Members—of- whatever rac^they may be—must be respected by^ the minority. To assert that Mr/Asquith is going to carry Home Rule by a trick, a fraud, is an impudent; 'and impertinent misrepresentation^ AH through the elections the Tory candidates denounced Home Rule, and asserted roundly that the real issue' was no;b the Veto birfc Home Rule. Scopes of elections were fought out on' thfe Home Rule issue-alone, and it is'absurd and unjust for Mr Balfour now to turn round and say that Home Rule was. not an issue. It is quite true that the House of Lords, as at present constituted, blocks the way to Home Rule; but it is blocking the way to many other projects as well. ' So long as the Tory leaders in the House of Commons can pass the word round to the "backwoodsmen" of the j House of Lords to "roll up" and kill this, that, or the! other piece of democratic legislation, so long will the desires and ctamands of the people be flouted and thwarted. The time has arrived when an end must be put to a state of affairs which is opposed to the spirit of the Constitution . It as the rankest hypocrisy for Mr Balfour to prate about the necessity for an independent second Chamber. Was it independent when his friends were in power? "No, a hundred times no," must be the answer. When the Tories are in office the House of Peers is its slavish and subservient tool. What Tory measure has ever been thrown out by the Peers within the last twenty years? We cannot recall a single instance of any policy measure brought in by the Tories being so treated. But how different is the conduct of the Peers when Liberal measures are sent up to them! Where they are not cast out forthwith with undisguised contempt, they are so hacked and mangled as to be robbed of every vestige of democratic spirit of which they may have possessed. An independent 'second Chamber, indeed! Why, that is the very last thing that Mr Balfour desires to see. And that is precisely why he clings with such fanatical devotion to the now completely exploded principle of heredity. Mr Balfour has, we • think, committed a fatal blunder in pinning his faith to the hereditary principle. A few Englishmen, many Englishmen, may still be i snobbish enough to "dearly love a lord"; bfit the snobs, thank Heaven, are hot in the majority, and the majority, much^ as Mr Balfour may dislike its decision, is goiner to rule, and must rule. Mr Asquith's renly was to the point, and must strike further terror into the hearts of the noble , obstructionists. It was the hereditary principle, he said, which had "enslaved and fettered +h*> House of Comnjons," a-nd it would have to fro. Very reronerly lie dwelt upon the fact that all theimany schemes which' had been pnt forward by the Lords and th"ir friends "perrvtu^ted +-ne predominance one side " That PTwl^mj^ance—the nrwlnm inanco which +,h'<» people of <^rr«it Britain and Ireland Tiav° now declared at three puocesp'^e election^ mnst be t<*rmina;ted, ■"'{]! lipvo to ■^is r>T>P'Pai'. As to r>. pnp/inri Ch^mTvn-, it h nf^Rsarv and desi>f>bl°. n +. if, ]r>n c+. ""to lor^pr ho a sp^^nd 'ChfiTT^p?' wMc'l s/> s.trnrip-«Tv "id wronrriv its •d'vfcv ns th© House of L<iv<?s h^s chosen to do.