BRITISH POLITICS.

West Coast Times, 15 March 1910, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. CATHOLIC PROCESSIONS IN LONDON. [HSU PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPTRIOHI ] LONDON, Alarch 13. Air Greenwood has given notice of a bill to amend the law of murder and enable verdicts to be returned of guilty in the first degree, and second degree. Hou. W. Churchill, replying to Mr McArthur, said that the question connected with ecclesiastical processions in the streets adjacent to Westminster Cathedral on the occasion of the consecration next June would receive timely and careful consideration. Hon. McKenna, replying to Air Lee, stated that the Australian Indofatigables will ho paid for by the Commonwealth, hence they could not be included in the estimates for new construction.

THE NEW SOLICITOR-GENERAL. Sir R. Isaacs was elected unopposed. He publicly thanked* the Conservative Association for the graceful act. His return was not a political trinmp, it was a striking example of the friendship between the different parties at Reading. [Sir R. Isaacs had a wonderfully successful career at the Bar, of which hois one of the most brilliant members. Starting life in a stockbroker’s office, be acquired there a knowledge of business matters that stood him in good stead when be became a barrister. His extraordinary grasp of such matters was first fully displayed by the Whittaker Wright case. The Crown having declined to take action, a prosecution was set on foot by private persons, and it was mainly due to Mr Isaacs’ handling of the case, which was an extremely complicated one ,that Wright was convicted. Since then Mr Isaacs has been in almost every great case. For his services in a recent suit he received a fee of €100!) and a retaining fee of £IOO a day. He is credited with never losing his temper, and his cross-examination is of the quiet but deadly order. In 1904 he took the quiet but hazardous step (for abarrister) of entering Parliament, and by means of an unusually strong constitution, and a huge capability for work, managed to combine Parliamentary duties with his great practice. A biographer has drawn an interesting picture of Mr Isaacs working sji the Courts all day, going down to the House at night, retiring to rest in the small hours, rising at five to look over his cases and arriving in Court a few hours later, quite fresh and ready for a hard day’s work. Mr Isaac’s was born in 1860.]

VACANT WELSH SEAT. LONDON, March 14. The present vacancy for Mid-Glam-organ seat, heretofore held by a Labour member, may cause a bye-eleetion, as there is a Socialist; candidate, Mr Hartshorn, in the field. THE LABOUR PARTY’S POLICY. SPEECH BY KEIR HARDIE.

Mr Keir Hardie, speaking at Swansea, dealt with the attitude of the Ind> pendant Labour Party in relation to the existing political situation, and expressed his opinion as to the policy which should guide the Party. He ' said that some arrangement with the Liberal Party for the present was possible at this juncture, in order to allow \ the Government to drag out a tolerated existence until beyond June, but the Labour Party must meanwhile be content simply to act as props to the Govenment, and must be careful lest it should be buried in the Government’s ruins. Referring to the threatened contests for Mid-Glamorgan, where Mr Hartshorn, the Socialist, was in the field, Mr Hardie declared that rather than hold seats by the grace of either the Liberals or the Tories, he preferred that labour should lie without them until it won them by its own strength.

DEATH OF NATIONALIST MEMBERS. LONDON, .March 13.—Janies Connor, M.P. Harrington, a Commoner M.P., froi i affection of the heart. ENGLAND’S PUBLC TRUST OFFICE LONDON, March 13—Mr Stewart, ?nhlie Trustee, reports that the De-m-tment is self-supporting. The hnsness dealt with since the estahlihsmont if the office amounts to 38.1 millions.