The Star. SATURDAY. JANUARY 30.1904. ENGLISH POLITICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7923, 30 January 1904, Page 4

The Star. SATURDAY. JANUARY 30.1904. ENGLISH POLITICS.

The coming session of the 'lmperial Parjament, which opens next week, promises t> be one of exceptional interest, and fruitful of important results. Since the lose of last session the political situa6on at Home has undergone an extraordinary revolution. One long-established Lrty has practically ceased to exist, others .(ve been torn by internal dissensions and fcaken to their foimdations by external iressure, and new ones axe in the process If formation. The whole country is seethL over a question whjcb threatens to fevolutionise the traditional economic policy _ the nation, and the Cabinet has been and is now -horn of some te its foremost figures. This, briefly, is lie state of affairs which will greet > Parfament next week. It ia chaotic, but it hounds in extraordinary possibilities, ancT it { fraught with tremendous interest to the inlooker, whether he be in England or at feme remote corner of the Empire. Amid fee complex issues into which the situation £ divided, certain facts stand out disJnctlv. One is tbat the rank and file of _c Conservative party is greatly disorgan- .; ped ; another is that the Liberals showed ' f gns' of consolidating ; and a third that E° re is a possibility of a new party reding that of the Liberal Unionists, which been shattered into fragments over the Iscal question. Exactly how much the government has suffered by the dissensions >_ the ranks of its supporters it will be inpossible to calculate until Parliament las met and divided on some important jssue. That we shall not have long to fsrait before this happens is evident' from Jhe fact that the Opposition has already hven notice of three hostile motions, each li which is a motion of want-of-confi-lence. Mr John Morley will move one Supporting freetrade; Mr W. S. Robson Inother challenging the conduct of the Boer Lar; and Mr Lloyd George the third, londemning the education policy of the Government. Any one of these motions'' will fee sufficient to test, tbe strength of tbe Go. rernment. Two will also test the truth of jke report as to ' the probable formation >f a third party, under the combined leadership of the Duke of- Devonshire and, Lord jtosebery. Tbis story was. first circulated h November. It was subsequently contrafiicted, on the authority of the Duke of fclevoushire, but it has now been revived md is apparently credited in England. It fras said at the .time the story was first Circulated that the price of the amalgamation was to bo the renouncement hy Lord Eosebery of Home Rule, on the yunder.tanding tbat the Liberal Unionists would join in attacking the Government on the fiscal question. It wa_ further rumoured that the various lections of the Liberal --Party were to be Invited to join the coalition, but that Sir feenry Campbell-Bannennan and Mr Morley teere to be excluded from any voice in the management, and that the leadership of the party in the House of Commons was to be Intrusted to- 1 Mr Asquitb. The mere fact of Mr &.squith's name not appearing against any fcf the hostile motions which we have enutaerate<J indicates nothing; bbuzt z taken in konjunction witb the story of the third p^rty, it assumes a significance which it is Impossible to ignore. In other words, it (ends colour to the theory that Mr Asquith tas withdrawn from the ql_ Liberal Party tf Bannerman. Morley and Harfcourt, to take fhe place assigned to him. by riiiteour in the ; (third or Central Party, a® we are told the Rosebery-Devonshire coalition will be call\d. For the motions to which we have llluded are clearly the -work of persons who iave no sympathy and are not acting in conert with such a coalition. One of the three s directed, against an Act, of which the )uke of Devonshire was part author ; and brother against the war administration of It, Government in which he was a prominent figure. No Rosebery-Devonshire could support either of these motions. ' No matter how anxious Lord Rosebery and the Radical fclement among his followers might be to take this course, the Duke of Devonshire, hi course, could' not conscientiously agree to Jt. One cannot support no-confidence motions in one's own actions without laying open to a charge of insanity, or worse, and the Duke has hitherto posed as a singularly unemotional and honest-politi-cian. If he and Lord Rosebery join forces, It will not be in conjunction with the framers of the motions. More than this, dt is impossible to forecast just. noWj^ but we fehall know a great deal more whem the motions bave been put.