The Irish standard., 1911-01-07
trophe that brought the peers to their
senses, and they passed the bill.

trophe that brought the peers to their
senses, and they passed the bill.
| There is an idea that the present
ministry would shrink from this ex.
treme step If the peers rejected the
veto bill; but they will not The men
of this ministry, differing on many
points, do not differ in their contempt
and indeed hatred for the lords.
Asquith is cautious politician, and
when a question like that of the Boer
war arose his strong and intense spir.
| 1t of race separated him from the rest
of his colleagues. Asquith gives
curious sidelight into his inner depth
| in the admiration he has for certain
aspects of Oliver Cromwell's charac-
ter, and he is fond of quoting with
chuckle divers half stern, half comic
rebuke to the Presbyterian leaders
who were pestering him: God, gen-
tlemen, can't you imagine that you
may be wrong?"
| SOUND on RadcaIien1.
1t always, he says, makes him proud
Of being an Englishman. But on ques-
tions of radicalism Asquith is quite
sound, and he has no hesitation in
going bald headed against the peers.
Similarly Sir Edward Grey, who al.
ways is regarded as Whig, and who
also separated from his party on the
Boer war, is a vehement opponent of
the peers.
+ One of the little ironies and the
unrevealed stories of the prolonged
and difficult negotiations between the
Liberal and the Irish parties, which
nearly wrecked everything, was that
Grey was holding out in the cabinet
for an immediate tackling of the ques-
tion of the reform of the House Of
Lords.
Grey wanted its entire abolition in
it's present shape, and the substitu-
tlon therefor of an entirely elective
chamber. 1t will come to that in the
end, but in the meantime it would
have been folly to have entered on
such program at this moment. The
r,rds would not have accepted it and
the Liberal party would have broken
up on details.
Gut still, this incident shows that
Grey, as one of the moderates of the
cabinet, would not object to any meas
urc against the lords. AS for two
such extremists as Lloyd-George and
Winston Churchill, everybody knows
tha; they are ready for almost any
thing and that they would create a
thousand peers If necessary 10 swamp
the present body
Lloyd-George speaks quite cheerlly
and even airily of the 500 peers that
would be necessary II the lords proved
obstinate, and maintains that very
respectable lot Of Liberals could be
found up and down the country who
would I'LL the bill.
General ELECTION t1ardenS.
or the protugonists in the general
election, Asqnith has come out best.
Although his feelings are strong and
his opinions advanced on the great
issue, he has managed to say all he
has had to say without ever making
L. personal observation. or course ].
is vehement, biting and witty per-
sonal speeches such az are to be
found in the speeches of Lloyd George
and Winston Churchill that appeal to
the masses and send them into de.
liriums of delight.
A general election in England has
a tendency to harden mems wits and
tempers and tongues, and the English
crowd has an instructive love for 4
fight and fighter, and such speeches
as these two brilliant young men make
are therefore very necessary part
of the battle, especially when the
issues are so gigantic. But Asquith's
strength takes an entirely different
form.
Asquith's oratory is indeed very
peculiar kind. 1t is perfect in its way
but it's perfection, as compared with
that Of the glowing periods Of Lloyd
George or the savage thrusts and
lofty flights Of Churchill, is as the
work OF perfect machine to that
of human hands.
In Balfour's innumerable twists and
!, turnings Asquith has just had the foji
, that was necessary Balfour. driven
, distracted by the divisions in his own
camp, by the insuperable indications
, that his party was in desperate case
and that for the third time in sue
cession he was leading his forces To
defeat, looked around for every meana
, of escape.
The wire.puller, the electioneer -