Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-05
TRAMWAYS OF LONDON
Contest in the House of Lords
Over Extension.
PUBLIC INDIGNATION
COMMENT OVER CAVALIER METH
DDS OF UPPER CHAMBER.
Prospective Conference Of Bankers
Over Status of Russian Finances
Significant Memorandum.


LONDON, July %. 1908.
Dire events from trivial causes spring,
and the veto by the house of lords on the
extension of London tramways may have
an effect Of extending far beyond it's dis
eussion and concern in ministerial decision
which is now the subject of much private
discussion and concern in ministerial circles.
London has of recent years presented the
contradiction of being steadily progressive
in its municipal politics and conservative
in its national politics, but the advisers of
the conservative party in London fear that
the ani-progressIve vote of the lords will
certainly have an adverse effect on the for
tunes OF the party in London constituencies
at the general election. Technically. the
government itself is responsible for the
ton of the lords, for the lord chancellor
led the opposition to the county council
measure, and the government issued no
whip in support of the bill. Efforts be-
Ing made to persuade Mr.. Baifour. in the
interests of his party, to bring the bill to
life again this session. if he decides not to
resign over Thursday nights defeat, even
If direct conflict with the lords follows.
There is no mistaking the indignation of
Londoners at the cavalier methods of the
upper chamber. and the indignation is not
| lessened by the discovery that the lord
chancellor positively garbled and misrepre-
scented the report of the royal commission
on London traffic, twisting into an areu-
ment favorable to his own views what is
really an emphatic and explicit pronounce
ment in favor of the very scheme which the
lords kicked out.
How great an impression their vote has
made may be deduced from the fact that a
London conservative paper declares that
the lord chancellor and his colleagues have
brought the reform of the house of lords
into the sphere of practical politics The
lords would doubt now be glad If some
ingenious friend of their order would show
them how they might climb down without
of blt the deed is done and
as it will certainly be reversed, the lords
will have to put their dignity in their
pockets.
London will certainly have it's reckoning
with the lords for their contemptuous re-
lection of the bill to carry the tramways
over the bridges from south London to the
city proper. There are few exceptions to
the opinion that the lords have done a ca
PRECIOUS and irresponsible thing, and that
they have deliberately detied the over
whelming desire of Londoners to have the
tramways.
1t is sufficiently anomalous that a bill.
which has been revised by select COM
mittee of the house of commons. which
has passed its third reading in the house,
and which Is supported by the city cor
poration, as well as the London County
Council. should be thought to need any
further consideration whatever. but when
those who hold it's fate in their hands are
a body of men who really have no repre-
sentative position in the matter at all. and
times a year, there is little wonder at the
anger of LOndoners. What annoys them
most is the certainty that If such a bill
had been sent up from Manchester or Liver
pool their lordships of the upper house
would never have dreamed of setting
themselves up as court of appeal against
the wishes of the local inhabitants, but.
big as municipal London Is, she IS still
kept in leading strings.
Some notable announcements are being
made by the tory press on the subject. The
Times Is merely pitful in its deliberate mis-
representation of the purpose of the
scheme. Other papers display some foolish
abuse and some thoroughly insincere nom
sense about the finest thoroughfare in
London. as the Embankment, where it is
proposed to the trans, is called as if
a thoroughfare merely meant way to the
Hotel Cecil or the Savoy for dinner and
supper. There is, however. a disposition to
see that for once there is some real in
dignation in the air. The fact is that the
house of lords today has become what 1t
never was in former days. the representa-
tive OF the vested interests against even
the mildest form of collectivism. For this
reason II Is bound to come into collision
with all the great municipalities who will
now be taught by practical experience what
Ireland has long suffered from the house
OF landlords And yet it is more than
sixty years since Macauay wrote that the
house of lords must go the way of the
borough of Old Sarum
A private meeting Of bankers is to be
held. hear, at an early date. either in
London or Paris, for the purpose of dis
GUESSING the condition of Russian finances.
and 1t seems probable that some arrange
ment will be agreed to by which, in the
event of peace being made and an in
demnity being accepted, international
loan will be Immediately issued. The posi-
ton is good deal complicated by the fact
hat ha uyor ri hot Too
now estimated roughly at S1GO, 600 OOO-is
mortgaged practically to the last coin to
various bankers. who have advanced the
Russian treasury sums of twenty-five or
more millions during the last twelve months
to help the government out of temporary
difficulties which arose owing to its inabil-
ity to float a loan.
Messrs. Bleichroeder and Messrs MendeI-
sohn of Berlin alone hold charges on the
war chest amounting to $50. 600 900, while
the charges held by French bankers exceed
that amount. 1t is clear, therefore that
quite apart from all questions of indemnity
which Japan may make a condition of peace
Russas ready cash. as represented by the
war chest, will be absorbed by the payment
of these outstanding liabilities to foreign
bankers. and II is a fact that most of these
debts were due for settlement on the Both
of June last. However. the fact that such a
meeting of bankers is to be held is regard
ed. even in official quarters, a favorable
sign, particularly as NJ. Rothstern. the Rus
sian treasury agent, is to attend the meet
ing.
A Russian diplomatic friend has shown
me a memorandum prepared in 1890 by the
late NJ. Vischnegradshi, who was Russian
minister of finance for many years. and
whose pupil was NJ. White. one of his sue
cessors in that office. and now a Russian
peace commissioner. 1t was NJ. Vishne-
gradshi who took NJ. Witte up and pre-
pared the way for his advancement, and
his references to the latter, therefore. may
be easily understood. The memorandum is
strikingy anticipatory of the events of the
past few years, for even in 1890 the late
minister foresaw the internal troubles which
are now CONFUSING Russia. the break up
of the despotic influence in the govern
ment and 1.-The development of a repre-
sentative system of CONTROL
The memorandum continues Significantly:
But reform will come from without
rather than within the empire, and we shall
not know it Is here until some foreign
power England, perhaps, but more likely
England in coalition with some eastern
power Is knocking hard at our gates. The
danger must at all events. come from the
east, for IN Europe are too solid and
centralized to be attacked successfully. 1t