THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1908. BRITISH POLITICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13926, 7 December 1908, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1908. BRITISH POLITICS.

The Aaquith Administration is so hopelessly moribund that its continuance in office is fast becoming a mere marking of time. The rejection of the Licensing Bill by the House of Lords, and the abandonment of the Education Bill as a result of differences within the Liberal Party itself, arc not in themselves signs of administrative weakness, but, considering all the circumstances, must be regarded as ringing the death-knell of the Asquith Government. For in such an eminently constitutional country as the United Kingdom no Government can long hold office after it has ceased to be an effective one ; and how wofully ineffective this Government has be come recent events have demonstrated. The Licensing Bill and the Education Bill, both dealing with exceptionally debatable questions, were much more moderate and statesmanlike than many a measure which strong-handed Governments, both Liberal and Conservative, have thrust through Parliaments. Nor li there any great reason to doubt that had Mr. Asquith been as strong in the constituencies as he nominally is in the House of Commons, some compromise would in each case have been reached, and much-needed additions made to the British Statutes. But every by-election has proclaimed the now-admitted change in the political feeling of the country, and all parties know thoroughly well that, should the Government appeal to the electors, the probabilities are that it will meet sure and disastrous defeat. In any struggle with the House of Lords,' it is obvious that the Lords must win against the Government of the day if the electors refuse to continue the majority in the popular* Chamber. Mr. Asquith has stated that he will not allow the House of Lords to force a dissolution of Parliament, but that is a mere confusing of the situation with idle word?. It has been traditionally acknowledged, as an inherent part and principle of the British Constitution, that the House of Lords may refuse to accept a Government measure as expressing the popular desire and determination, and that no quarrel can arise between the two Houses, as Houses, until the Government can claim a distinct mandate from the people. The consciousness of the Asquith Government that it has no such mandate prevents it from appealing to the constituencies on behalf of its Licensing and Educational policies; while the assurance felt by the Opposition that an appeal to the country must reseat them in office, very naturally encourages them to push to an extreme the use of their majority in the House of Lords, for the purpose of embarrassing the Government and making its retention of office impossible. In this clashing of party interests, the British public naturally suffers; but the fundamental cause of an undignified situation is unmistakably the clinging to office by Mr. Asquith after the electors have so plainly shown that they are tired of him.

The majority of the electors of the United Kingdom have now so clearly set themselves against the Liberal Government of the day, that it only remains for the colonial world to inquire why this is so, when only a few short years before the Government took office with a phenomenal majority in its favour. It may fairly be concluded that the attacks upon the " Church" and the " Trade" have stirred to extraordinary efforts these always powerful organisations. The general battle between them and a great section of the Liberal Party has been waged for many years, with varying suecess, and recent events must have involved the whole party organisation in their antagonisms. Then one of the most sensitive points of the British electorates is the national safety. With Lord Roberts persistently asserting the possibility of invasion and the insufficiency of the territorial defence, and with a score of able champions preaching at all times the need for a strong navv. the undisguised eagerness of

certain Cabinet Ministers to reduce naval expenditure must have been a great source of party weakness. The emphatic declarations as to the intentions of the Government in naval affairs, which Mr. Asquith has been making of late, are an attempt to counteract the effect of national suspicion of Liberal weakness in defence matters, a suspicion which must have cost Government candidates many thousands of votes, and be undermining - the Government chances in scores of doubtful electorates. Last, but not least, we have the fiscal reform movement, which has grown so strong that Mr. Balfour has burnt his bridges and is openly fighting the battle of Protection and - Reciprocity, while the ranks of " Free Trade" are wavering in every direction. The fiscal reform movement is not alone responsible for the utter destruction of the confidence of the British constituencies in the policy of the Asquith Administration, but it has in no way frightened the electors, and has notoriously won over immense numbers of voters in every class of electorate — agrarian, manufacturing, professional, commercial, and residential. What seems strange and wonderful now is not the rapid progress of fiscal reform, but the really extraordinary manner in which " Free Trade" remained as a fetish long after any real belief and confidence in it had passed from the average British mind. The effect of the reform in the patent laws—compelling patented articles to be manufactured within the United Kingdom has opened the eyes of the most prejudiced, and there is a general acceptance of the idea that the case for "Free Trade" is not as complete as it was thought to be a few years ago. Amid the variety of influences steadily sweeping the Asquith Administration from power, Tariff Reform is therefore very much in evidence, and its triumph will admittedly come with the return to office of a Unionist Cabinet.