The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-22
LORDS DOOM IS AN .ACCOMP PL|SHED FACT House of Commons Supreme in Future A DAY OF CAUCUSES Lords Hold Many Meetings to Discuss Situation Which Now Seems to
 Afford no Escape-Mr. /.
 Asquith Writes Letter
A DAY OF CAUCUSES

London, July 21.-The constitutional revolution tonight appears to be an &C., complished fact. Great Britain in the future will be governed practically by the house of commons, with its heredi- tary upper house possessing only veto with time limit of two years. The peers find their one gleam of hope in the pre- diction that the next conservative gov ernment will overturn Asquiths revolu- tion and restore the old conditions, but the radicals are confident that In such matters the hands of the clock will never turn back
 Yesterday the future career of the veto bill was apparent to all politicians and it's eventual acceptance by the house of lords not doubted. Premier Asquith dis pelled all clouds today by communicat- ing informally. to MT. Balfour, leader of the opposition in the house of com mons, the substance of an announcement which he will make in that house on Monday. His letter. which MT. Balfour communicated to the meeting of the lords this afternoon, was as follows
 
 eous and right, before any public deci- sons are announced, to let you know how we regard the present situation When the parliament bill, In the form which 1t has now assumed, returns to the house of commons, we shall be compelled to ask that house to disagree with tho lords amendments In the circumstances, should the necessity arise, the govern ment will advise the King to exercise his prerogative to secure the passing into law of the Dill In substantially the same form In which it left the house of commons, and his majesty has been pleased to sig nifty that he will consider 1t his duty to accept and act on that advice. Yours sincerely, 1T. H. ASQUITH." This was a day of caucuses. Three meetings were held to discuss the situa- tion.s The cabinet sat for two hours and later the conservative leaders of both houses met at MT. Balfours residence, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord Curzon, the Marquis of Londonderry, the Earl of Selborne, Austen Chamberlin, the Rt. Hon. Henry Chap plin, the Earl of Hals- bury and the Marquis of Salisbury being the principal figures of the conference.
  ing was at Lansdowne house, where more than 200 peers, among them almost all the greatest names of their order, lis tened to the reading of the prime min ister's letter, and practically decided that they must accept the inevitable. Later a statement was given out that the peers reserved decision as to their course until Premier Asquiths announcement of the policy of the government on Monday. Apparently this was mere temporizing. The lords are not anxious to empha | size their surrender, but speaking pri- vately few failed to say that they nc | longer consider themselves5 in Lord | Lansdowne's words, free agents" and will yield to the governments threat to invoke the prerogative of the crown The Earl of Halsbury, leader of the extremists, left with fighting fire ir his eye. While his compeers admire his stand for the prestige of the upper chamber, most of them regard him as an anarchist. In the interests of his tory cit is a distinct misfortune thai the proceedings at this British nobil- ity are not preserved in writing, as some of the lords expounded very pes simistic views of the situation.
 What is going to happen?" was asked by one. Government by cabi- net controlled by rank socialists" was the tart reply.
 Consideration for the King was giver by many as the chief reason for die tating this policy. What the Kings feelings are cannot be known, but ii Is generally believed he is anxious tc avoid the necessity of creating a great number of peers. Premier Asquith's latter gives ground for the belief that the govern ment will accept some minor modif- cations of it's bill. Those considered most probable are:
 "Placing outside the bill's scope any proposals dealing with succession tc | the crown, and the concession of a | committee to assist the speaker in de- termining what are money bills. h. stead of a joint committee of the two houses. which the lords desire, the government is expected to insist that this committee be composed of mem | bers of the commons alone.
 | After the cabinet council Premier | Asquith wrote a second letter to Lord | Lansdowne asking for assurance thai the house of lords will pass the veto | bill in its original form. 1t is under | stood that Lansdowne, while himself 1 willing to counsel the abstation of the unionist peers from the final stages of | the bill, was unable to give the re- | quired assurance.
 l This shows that the rebel peers still are unsubdued and that it may | yet be necessary to create a batch of peers to overcome their resistance. |