The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-11-26
THE CRISIS IN GREAT BRITAIN.

"The issue first and foremost" said Mr. T. P.
OConnor in his speech last week in Manchester, us
the House of Lords" What about the House Of
Lords2 M. de Vogue, French historian remarks
that it is the Lords rather than the Commons, who
have built the British Empire 1t was the great
Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Lang
ton, and the Lords who wrung from King J ohm the
Great Charter which is, today the foundation of
British freedom. The Lords, not the Commons,
are the modern counterpart of the ancient Saxon
Witenagemot, the nucleus of all democratic par
haments. councils and congresses.
The Witenagemot was the great council of the
Saxon Kings, and it was from the folkmote or
meetings, of this council that our ideas of repre-
sentative government have been derived. All the
world knows that it was the Archbishop and the
barons who, in January 1915 wrested from King
John the Great Charter, the palladium of British
liberty 1t was subsequent to this, in 1865 that
Simon de Montfort organized the first House of
Commons. To this assembly he called two knights
from each county, two citizens from each city, two
burgesses, or freemen from each borough or in
corporated town. and all the prelates and barons.
Side by side sat bishop baron and citizen and to-
gether they administered the affairs of the king
DOM From that day to this the great power of
the Parliament has been its control of the national
purse. No wonder Lloyd-George can rouse audi
ences to enthusiasm when this ancient right is now
threatened by the Lords.
In the fourteenth century Parliament had grown
large that Edward III divided it into two bodies
the Lords consisting of the peers and bishops and
the Commons made up of men sent from the cities
and boroughs. 1t was in 1897 that the Parliament
composed of Lords and Commons, assumed the
power of taxation and, after the division into an
Upper and Lower House, that is, into Lords and
Commons, the principal gradually developed that
the finances of the kingdom were specially vested
in the Lower House In time it was understood
that the Lords should not interfere with financial
measures. 1t not, however, until 1915 that the
principal was formulated. In that year the Com
mons adopted a resolution to the effect that all
bills authorizing supplies Fought to begin with the
Commons; and that it is the undoubted and sole
right of the Commons to direct, limit and appoint
IN such bills, the ends purposes, considerations.
conditions limitations and qualifications of such
grants, which ought not to be changed or altered
by the House of Lords"
The Lords, while not opposing this preamble,
never expressly surrendered their rights When
them the late budget was submitted for their ap-
proval they objected couple of bills it contained
and threw them out, sending back to Lloyd-G George
Chancellor of the Exchequer, mutilated budget
II is plain, then, that the constitutional issue be-
tween the Lords and Commons has not grown nat
urally out of the situation, but was created by
Real trouble between the Peers and Commons
has happened only on three occasions previous to
the present crisis One of these dead-locks occurred
in 1882, and was caused by the Lords refusing to
pass the Reform Bill which extended the franchise,
wiped out the rotten boroughs, and gave cities like
Birmingham representation in the Commons for
he first time
The Lords threw it out. The Ministry did not
resign, but repassed the measure and urged the
King to appoint new Peers to carry it through the
Lords. The King, after struggle with himself,
agreed to the creation of new Peers
and the Reform Bill became law.
In the case of Mr.. Gladstone's Home Rule bills,
he Lords rejected them. An appeal to the country
ollowed, and the voters sustained the Upper House
Now it is these very Lords and Peers Mr. Redmond
md his supporters viii have to contend with The