IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2676, 4 December 1909, Page 5

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

GOVERNMENT’S RESOLUTION CARRIED IN THE COMMONS.

United Press Association—CorYiucirr (Received December 3, 10.20 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 3.

The House of Commons ay as thronged from floor to ceiling with rows upon rows of eager, attentive faces. Mr. Asquith’s appearance was the signal for deafening Ministerial cheers-, his followers rising to do him honor.

Mr. Balfour, in turn, was enthusias-

ticallv acclaimed by tho Unionists, his unexpected attendance, after a slight chill, stimulating them to a high pitch of excitement. *

The debate was comparatively short. Mr. Asquith’s resolution “That the action of the House of Lords in refusing to pass into law the financial provision made by the House of Commons for the services of the year, was a breach of the constitution, and a usurpation of the rights of the people,” was carried by 349 to 234. Mr. Asquith was grave and earnest. He declared that the circumstances were unparallelled in the history of Parliament. He recalled with marked emphasis the fact that the Commons alone were addressed in the (Speech from the Throne in February, when they were invited to make provision for the heavy additional expenditure due to social reform and national defence.

LIBERAL FEDERATION’S MANIFESTO.

LONDON, Dec. 2

The National Liberal Federation has issued a manifesto to the electors, in which the folloAving declaration is made:

“The issues involved are as grave as any in the lifetime of the oldest voter. The victory of the Tory party would involve degradation of tho Commons and aggrandisement of the Lords, and a return to protection with its inevitable taxes on food. The electors would have to decide whether they wished to govern themselves or he governed by a few hundred hereditary peers, who had thrown the constitution into the melting pot in order to shift the burden from wealth, land, and liquor to food necessaries.” The “Times’ 5 declares that Mr Asquith’s resolution embodies the doctrine of the last four years.

“It goes much, beyond any previous assertion of privileges,” states the “Times,” “and by implication denies the power or right of the Lords to have a voice in any legislation tacked to a Budget. It was only incidentally that the Lords refused supplies this year. What has really been done is to refer to the country a quantity of legislation, involving novel principles denying the right of appeal to courts of law, and establishing an expensive bureaucracy with arbitrary inquisitorial powers. Mr Joseph Chamberlain, in a message to the tariff demonstration at Shoreditch, said he was counting on the democracy of the East End to help in the great struggle before the country. Opposition newspapers comment on the rise of British investment securities in consequence of the Lord’s action.

A DISSOLUTION ANNOUNCED

(Received December 4, 12.5 a.m.) Mr. Asquith, continued : For the first time in the history of the grant the whole ways and means for supply and service for the year have been intercepted and nullified by a body admittedly having no power to increase or diminsh a single tax ) or substitute an alternative. Amid a storm of Liberal and Labor cheers Mr. Asquith remarked that the House would be unworthy of its past if it allowed another day to pass without making it clear that it does not mean to brook the greatest indignity and most arrogant, usurpation of the past two centuries. He laid stress on the confusion and embarrassment from lost revenue and the increase of the country’s indebtedness that would result from the Lords’ action, and the consequent necessary ' restoring of the borrowing powers conferred by the Appropriation Act. Mr. Asquith expressed the hope that later on the ultimate irrecoverable loss .to the State would not be very great. He scouted the suggestion that the House of Commons should stoop to the humiliation of presenting an amended Budget, with the Lords’ criticism and sanction. He contended only one course was open. Avithout breaking the law ,or even sacrificing constitutional principle, and that was to advise, as we have advised, the Crown to dissolve Parliament at the earliest pos-. sible moment. His Majesty had been graciously pleased to accept that advice. (Prolonged cheers from both sides of the House.), Mr. Asquith continued: If the Government is returned to power, its first duty would bo do reimpose all taxes and duties recently voted. Dwelling ■upon the constitution, he remarked that the great bulk of constitutional liberties and practice rested upon, cus- . .tom,' usage, and convention, not the barren, letter of, the law. He brushed aside the argument that the Bill „ot really .financial, and asserted there was not a.. clause therein w;hich, was not connected Ayith primary purposes of. revenue. He emphatically protested against the novel theory that the Bill •was not being rejected, but merely referred to the people. If such a claim and precedent Avere admitted, no Liberal Government Avould be safe. The conversion of the Lords into a plebiscitary organ was one of tho quaintest .

CABLE NEWS.

inventions of tho day. The presumption always is that the Commons are freely chosen by the people and represent the people’s will. There was no such presumption regarding the Lords. He admitted, parenthically, the pre-sumption-in the ease of the Commons ought to be strengthened by shortening the duration of Parliament and more frequent contact with the electorates. Mr. Asquith asked the House and constituencies to declare by organ and voice that a free people is to he found in the elected representatives of the nation. . ■ V

WELL-WISHERS FROM DUNEDIN

[Pun Puesb Ahrooiation.l DUNEDIN, Dec. 3. The Trades and Labor Council has received a letter from Mr Lloyd-George thanking them for their message of encouragement re the Budget proposals.