The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-12
The Grave Constitutional Crisis In
Great Britain.


Great Britain.
The Bannerman Government has ar
nounced a determination to reject the
amendments with which the House Of
Lords has saddled the Education bill.
The lines, therefore, are now sharply
drawn between the elected representa-
tives of the British people and the he
reditary legislators. Whether the latter
will stand firm and challenge the Lib
erals to carry out the threat Of mending
or ending the upper chamber is as yet
doubtful. Since the Education bill was
killed the Lords have had two occasions
for evincing their intentions. In one
instance they have persisted in main
tanning a defiant attitude, throwing out
the bill framed to prevent plural voting.
But, TO the establishment Of onlookers,
they have yielded to the will OF the popu-
lar assembly in the case of the Trades
Disputes bill, although they have de-
nounced it as a highly obnoxious meas
ure. This act Of submission was per-
formed at the bidding OF Lord LANs-
DowNE, the leader Of the great Unionist
majority in the upper house, who
declared that the last general election
had turned on the question involved in
that bill, and that consequently in
passing the measure the Liberal Govern
specific mandate from the British people.
To such a mandate, Lord LANsDowNE
said, it was the duty OF the upper house
todefer. He asserted, on the other hand,
that Sir II. CAMPBELL ANNERMAN had
received no such mandate in the case
Of the Education bill, or Of the Anti
Plural Voting bill. On the whole, there
fore, although at one moment they
showed signs of wavering, the Unionist
Peers seem to have made up their minds
to drive the Liberals to desperation.
The voters Of the United Kingdom are
gradually awakening to the fact that
a general election in their country is
a farce, provided they see fit TO return
a Liberal majority to the House Of
Commons. II, indeed, the electors
choose to return a Cnionist majority,
legislation proceeds quickly and smooth
ly. the House of Lords submitting TO
play a subordinate part, and seldom, il
ever, venturing to amend in an i'm
portant particular a bill sent up from
the other chamber. The striking differ
erence between the attitude Of the House
Of Lords to-day and that which il took
during the Salisbury and Balfour ad-
ministrations liz, Of course, applicable by
the fact that since 1885 about four-ffths
Of the Peers have been Unionists. In
the eighteenth century, and, indeed, up
10 1854, the Wings were, on the whole,
preponderant in that chamber; but after
the younger PITT became Prime Minister
the Tories acquired ascendency, and to
some extent retained il until the Tory
Peers themselves were divided into Peel
ties and Anti-Peelites by the abolition Of
the Corn Laws. The subsequent coalition
of the Wings with the Peelites enabled
them to control the upper house pretty
steadily for some thirty years. Mr.. GLAD
STONE even succeeding in gaining it's
assent to the Land Laws of 1881. His ac-
ceptance Of home rule, however, in 1885
drove the larger part Of the Liberal Peers
into a coalition with the Conservatives,
under the collective name Of Unionists,
and the secession of the Duke Of DEVON
SHIRE and some other members Of the
upper house in 1905 on the free trade issue
did not avail TO shake seriously the DOM
inant position OF the Unionist party. That
is to say three-fourths Of the House OF
Lords as at present constituted are will
ing 10 pass any Conservative measure,
however distasteful to the mass Of the
British people, and car be relied upon
to kill any Liberal project, however pas
sionately desired by an ostensible ma
jority of the electors.
We say ostensible because, Is We
have seen, the excuse made by the
Unionist Peers for throwing out n Lib
eral proposal is that the voters have
not given a specific mandate to that
effect. They always profess that if on
their rejection of a Liberal bill the Lib
eral Government interested in the same
will dissolve Parliament and appeal 10
the electors on that issue alone they will
bow to the judgment of the people. They
have not been tested, because since Mr..
GLADsToNE's disastrous submission OF
his first Home Rule bill TO the constitu-
encies, in 1885, no Liberal Government
has dared appeal On a single question
from the judgment Of the House Of Lords.
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