MR ASQUITH'S MOTION CARRIED.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12385, 4 December 1909, Page 5

MR ASQUITH'S MOTION CARRIED.

A NOTEWORTHY SCENE

Reseived December 3, 10.25 p.m. LONDON, December 3. Ti:s? House of Commons was thronged from floor to ceiling with rows upon rows of eager attentive faces. Mr Asquitlrs appearance was a signal for deafening Ministerial cheers, his followers rising to do him honour. Mr Bali'our in turn, was enthusiastically acclaimed by the Unionists, his unexpected attendance after a slight chill stimulating them to a high pitch of excitement. The debate was comparatively snort/ Mr Asquith's resolution was carried by 349 to 234. Mr Asquith was grave and earnest. He dedarad that the circumstances were unparalleled in the history ot; Farlinme.it. He recalled with marked emphasis that the House of Commons alone were addressed in the Spcoeh from the Throne in February wher. ir.vited to make provision for the heavy additional expenditure due to social reform and national defence. "Firstly, the history of the grant of whole ways and means for the supply and service of the year has been intercepted and nullified by a body admittedly having no power to increase or diminish a sinu.le tax or to substitute an alternative.' 1 Amid a storm of Liberal and Labour cheers, he remarked that the House was unworthy of its past if it allowed anothe.il day t y pass without making clear that it docs not mean to brook iiie greatest indignity, the most arrogant usurpation ever passed. He laid stress on the confusion, embarrassment, loss of revenue, and the increase in the country's indebtedness that would r'rsult from the Lords' action, and the consequent necessity for restoring the borrowing powers conferred by iha Appropriation Act. Mr Asquith * expressed later on the hope that 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 cne course is open without breaking the law or sacrificing the constitutional principle and that is to advise, as we , have advise:!, tho Crown to dissolve the House at the earliest possible moment. His Majesty has been graciously pleased to accept that . advice. (Prolonged cheers from both sides of the House). Mr Asquith continued: "If the Government be returned to power, its first duty will bo to re-impose all the taxes and" duties i-cently voted.". Dwelling upon the constitution, he remarked that 'the great .bulk' of constitutional, liberties and :-arfciee rested upon custom; usage r-iid convention, and not on the barren latter of the law... He brushed asid.v the argument that the Bill was ir.t really financial, and asserted that there . was not a clause therein that was not' connected with the primary purposes of revenue. Ho emphatically protested against the novel theory that the Bill was not being rejected, but merely "referred to tho people." If such a claim and precedent were admitted, .no Liberal Government would; be safe. The conversion of the Lords into a plebiscitary erg in was one of the quaintest inventions of tho day. ■ The'presumption always was that •■-he Commons were Freely ch^sei by fhe people and represented the people's v,i\\. There was no such presumption regarding the Lords. He admitted parenthetically, that the prej sumption 'in-the case of the Commons ; ought to be strengthened by shortenin "the duration of a Parliament. The cr^an amY th 9 vcico- of a free people are to be found in tho elected reprei Ecntatives of the nation. Mr Balfour criticised the finance ar-i-.-uv:;emo:its for mc nvcireivjing trade ! and taunted the (Government on having 1 .-, na sini for abstract motions, which I neither hurt, encouraged, n::r t'rightenj ed anyoi.o, but tho resolution was a uvos-i mkrepresan bat-ion. It ignored the fact thr,T. ;,he Commons had in tha very original resolution, whereon all its claims were based, gratuitously admitted that the House, of Lords had tho riobt t» rojrct the finance Bill though m/fc to initiate or amsnd He hoped the Lords' exercise of their right would be rare, but never abandoned.