IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14698, 4 December 1909, Page 8

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

•BREACH OP THE CONSTITUTION,

DEBATE IN HOUSE OF COMMONS

DISSOLUTION AGREED TO.

A LIBERAL MANIFESTO.

Press Association—By Tolcgraph-Copyrighl

LONDON, December 3.

(Received Dec. 3, at 10.20 p.m.) The Houso of Commons was thronged from floor to coiling yesterday, and there were rows upon tows of eager and atten-

tivc faces.

Mr Asquith's appaaranco was the signa' lor deafening Ministerial cheers, his fob lowers rising to do him honour.

Mr IVour, in tarn, was entliu.si.ißti. cally acclaimed by the Unionists, his unexpected attendance after a. slight chill stimulating tihe high pitch of excitement. The debato was comparatively short, and Mr Asquitb's motion was carried bv 349 votes to 234.

Sir Aw[uith, in a .grave and earnest speech, declared that llio circumstances "were unparalleled in the history of Parliament. Ho recalled with marked emphasis that the Home of Commons done had boon addressed in the Speech from the Throno in February, when the Houso was invited to make provision for heavy additional expenditure, due to social reform and national defonc

LONDON, December 2. . T ™° National Liberal Federation has issued a manifesto which ,4:ites that the issues, involved aro as grave as ;l:iv j :i the lifetime of the oldest voter. The victory of the Tory party will involve the degradation of the Houee of Commons, the aggrandisement of the Lords, and a return to Protection with its inevitable taxes on tlio supplies of food. The clcctam have to decide whether they wish to govorn themselves or to bo governed by a few hundred hereditary Peers, who havo thrown the Constitution into the niellin'' pot in order to shift the burden from wealth, land, and liquor on to food necessaries. TARIFF REFORM. LONDON, December 2. Mr Joseph Cliamborlain Kent a. message from his sick room to a tariff reform demonstration at Shorediteb. In it ]| C r>aiti that ho was counting on. the men, of the democracy m Ha East Bid to help in the great Ktrugglo now before tlio country. PRESS OPINIONS.

TU '!>• Jj ® kd oN, December 2. tM limes declares that Mr Asouith's resolution embodies the doolrino of the °" r ? caTO ' on, y to goes much beyond •my previous a-wrtion of tho Hour's pim'eges, am l by implication denies the 1»«« or Tight of tho Lords to have a -CO in , ny legation on « u» 11,15,, ni, 01|J . "i« tod. „r«;i supply this year. had really W„ 0 logucJalioi, tlwvt involved Lel JwtTTi y th ® rig!ll ot "W»aJ to md M,C an » J't-!- 0 !' comment on ~^."srts fch

dissolution AGREED TO. IJ} . LONDON, December 3. (Received Dec. 4, at 0.5 a 111 I swrtt'S'i nod by body admittedly havinir no K r iisl '. a fii "S le or to subntituto an alternative. Amid a storm of fel>eral and Labour cheers Mr Asquith leinarked tho House would bo unttwlhy Ot ils past If it allowed another day to pass without malting it clear that if. did not mean to brook the greats indignity and the most arrogant usurpation to which in the past two centuries they had been asked to submit. He Jam stress on tho confusion, embarrassment loss of rovenuo, and increased inthat, would result from the Lords action and tho consequent necesEity for restoring the borrowing powers conferred by the Appropriation Act. Mr Asquith expressed tho hope that later on tho ultimata irrecoverable loss to tho Stato Would not be very great. He scouted tho suggestion that tho House of Commons should stoop to the humiliation of presenting an amended Budget with tho Lords' criticism and sanction. He contended that only one course was open without breaking the law or saerificing a constitutional principle, and that was <0 advise, as tho Government has advised, tho Crown to dissolvo Parliament at tho earliest possibl© moment. Hie Majesty had been graciously pleased to accept that advice.—(Prolonged cheers from both sides of tho Houso.) Mr Asquith continued that if tho Government was rctumod to power its first duty would bo to reimposo all the taxes and duties recently voted. Dwelling upon tho Constitution, ho remarned that the great bulk of tho constitutional liberties and practice rested upon custom, age, and convention, not 011 tho barren letter of the law. He brushed aside the argument that tho bill was not really tinanfial, and asserted that there was not a clause therein that was not connected with the primary purposes of revenue. He emphatically protested against tho no\cl theory that tho bill was not being rejected, but merely referred to the people. If such a claim and precedent were admitted no Liberal Government would bo safe. Tho conversion of the House of Lords into a plebiscitary organ was ono of tho quaintest inventions of tho day. The presumption had always been that tho House of Commons wa6 freely chosen by tho people to represent the peoplo's will. There was no such presumption regarding the House of I-Ol'ds. Ho admitted parenthetically that' the presumption in the case of the House of Commons ought to be strengthened by shortening the duration of Parliament and by more frequent contact with the electorates. Mr Asquith asked tho Houso and the constituencies to declare that the organ and voice of tho free people was to he found in the elected representatives of tho nation.

Ml" Balfour criticised the- avoidable finance arrangements, which wore inconveniencing trade, anil lie taunted the Government on having a passion for abstract' motions which neither hurt, encouraged, nor frightened nnyono. Tho resolution wa•> a gross misrepresentation. It ignored tho (act. that the House of Commons had, iu tho very original resolution whereon all its claims were based, gratuitously admitted that the ifouse of Lords had the right- to reject {i Finance Bill, though it had uot the right to initiate or amend one. He hoped that tho liotife of Lords' exercise of tho right would bo rare, but never abandoned.