The Daily News. FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1911. THE BRITISH POLITICAL CRISIS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 24, 22 July 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1911. THE BRITISH POLITICAL CRISIS.

The political parties of the Old Country are now coming to " close grips" over the Parliament Bill. The House of Lords have passed the Bill, but with amendments that the Government have declared their intention of not accepting. Lord Lansdowne says his party does not intend to prevent the Government from tampering with the Union until the country expresses it views on the revolutionary changes incorporated in the Bill, just as if the country had not already done so in terms that leave no room for misunderstanding. The last two elections were fought on the one issue, namely, whether the House of Commons or the House of Lords should rule the country, aad the decision was emphatic on both occasions in favor of the Lower House. Lord Lansdowne has courted disaster so far as the Lords are concerned, and ho and his party have no one to blame but themselves if the Government create as many new peers as are necessary for the passage of the Bill in its undiluted form. A recent message stated that the King had given " guarantees" that he would create the new peers. There is scarcely room for a doubt that when the advice is tendered—as, according to the Minis-

fcerialist press it will be —the King will act upon it, because there is no other course open to him, except to accept the resignation of his Ministers, and call upon the leader of the Opposition to carry on the Government of the country —an impossible feat for Mr. Balfour in the present state of parties in the House of Commons. In fact, the history of 1832 is repeating itself, and it seems likely that when King George the Fifth on-

nounces his intention to adopt the same drastic course in order to secure the enactment of the Parliament Bill that King William tlie Fourth undertook to carry out in order to secure the enactment of the Reform Bill, the passage of the former measure will be as easy as was that of the hitter. A well-informed writer in the Contemporary Review for June, dealing with the crisis, shows that King George has based his public conduct on the conduct of that most constitutional of sovereigns—Queen Victoria. He proceeds to show that if Queen Victoria had to deal with such a situation as now exists, her whole constitutional practice shows that she would have exerted her prerogative in accordance with the advice of her Ministers. Here is the formula deduced from the constitutional practices of Queen Victoria: "Failing the possibility of securing an alternative Ministry with a majority in the actual or prospective House of Commons, the Sovereign becomes for the moment,, and for tlie immediate purpose in hand, an irresponsible automaton registering without volition the decree of indispensable. irreplaceable Ministers." More shortly still the formula may be stated thus: "The Sovereign becomes an automatic registration machine when he is unable to find an alternative Ministry." This writer shows that when Mr. Asquitli approached King George and asked for a. dissolution in order that the electors might decide between the two parties on the great issue, the Prime Min- 1 ister had explicitly declared that he

would not ask for a dissolution except on the clear and distinct understanding that if the nation gave a verdict in his favor the will of the people must 1 be carried into effect. This meant, he contends, that if the Liberals came back with a sufficient majority the Royal prerogative would be exercised automatically in overriding the resistance of the peers. King George might have refused to grant a. dissolution, and might have summoned Mr. Balfour to his counsels. He did not do so. He granted the dissolution, and thereby accepted the logical consequences of his action in the event of the Liberals going back with a working majority—which, as a matter of fact, occurred. This contributor holds the opinion that should the peers persist in compelling the exercise of the Royal prerogative to enforce the will of the Commons, "that prerogative will be exercised without tremor or hesitation, or holding back." The Lords, and the Unionist Party generally, are making a brave show just now, and talking of what they will do in opposing the Government's policy, but their opposition will only serve to harden still more the determination of the Government to give effect to the people's will in this great constitutional matter . That will must prevail, and the Lords would have been better advised to have accepted the position calmly and rationally tlian to have taken the extreme step they have in adhering to amendments that won't be tolerated for a moment by the Government.