POLITICS OR REVOLUTION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 23, 12 September 1911, Page 6

POLITICS OR REVOLUTION.

Under the above heading “The Times” of July sth published a letter frosm Lord Hugh Cecil. It will be seen from the closing clauses of his communication that the scandalous scenes in the House of Commons on July 25th had been carefully prearranged: “I am aware that these considerations have little weight with many of those who are pressing for the creation of peers. They care nothing for the Constitution and little for the position and reputation of the Throne. They are looking merely for the shortest path to party success. To such persons dill event arguments must bo addressed. Unconstitutional action is a game at which any number of people can play. For instance it would be easy for 100 members to arrest-' proceedings of the House of Commons by continuous disorder, as has : been done abroad. In normal times this would be unjustifiable. But when the Constitution has once been broken by an abuse of the prerogative, there is nothing not in itself immoral that would not be justified by way of retaliation and as a protection of the rights of the minority. Nor would the authority of law be unaffected. A packed Parliament is no Parliament; and the laws it might pass would be but pretended laws. Obedience to such laws would be a matter not- of general moral obligation, but of social expediency depending on the .circumstances of each particular case. Homo links would not have much prospect of peaceful acceptance on such terms. In short, to use. the prerogative to destroy the Constitution would release the minority from all obligations to accept the conclusions arrived at by such means. The Government and their supporters would do well to pause before they cross the line that divides ordinary political conflict from revolution.