AN INTERESTING STRUGGLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14222, 19 November 1909, Page 4

AN INTERESTING STRUGGLE.

The notice of motion given in the House ■of Lords by the Leader of the Opposition removes all doubts as to the attitude .of a majority -of the Peers towards the remarkable Budget which has received the approval : ; of the House of Commons. Lord Lansdowne and his party, having regard to the sweeping and revolutionary character of Mr. LloydGeorge's Finance Bill, have determined that beiore it receives their sanction the country shall have an opportunity of giving judgment upon it. Whether such a course is or is not a violation of the constitutional rights of,the Commons, it is clearly the only one open to the Peers consistent with what they deem to be their duty to the people. And, viewing the. matter from this distance, there seems to us to be no. real justification for the political heat and ferment which the attitude of the , Lords has evoked. All they propose doing is to allow the nation to be consulted on a question which vitally concerns its welfare. The Budget is no ordinary measure of finance. ,It embraces novel and extraordinary changes that strike at the foundations "of all confidence and credit. These changes Lord Rosebery has described as revolutionary, and a competent foreign observer, M. Leroy-Beaulieu, • declares that they tend to destroy private property and to make it a mere precarious concession '; granted by the Government. In the eyes of a considerable section of the British people they are the quintessence of socialism and confiscation. What the decision of the electors will be when the question _is submitted to them no one knows. The real issue when the struggle commences will probably be obscured by other issues, involving the question of tariff. reform and the constitution 'of the House- of Lords. But whatever the outcome may be we are about to witness the greatest, the most interesting, and in many respects the most important political struggle that this generation has known. '•■ ' ' • ■■[■■ ■ : f -;'.