The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-28
DIE HARD" LORDS
 ARE SORRY NOW Wish They Had Accepted
 1909 Budget HONORS ARE FOR SALE Charges of James Douglass Are Creating Much Comment-South American States Trying to
 Get British Emigrants
HONORS ARE FOR SALE


 New York, December 27.-(SpecaD.- That even the most rabid Die lizards in the house of lords would give a great deal if they had accepted Lloyd Georges 1909 budgest with as good q grace as possible admits of no doubt The recent bye collections, particular ! ly that in Somerset, makes it extreme ly possible that with labor troubles the dissa tisfaction over the insurance scheme and with no ground for the warfare on the lords, it would be more would have come into power, for the parliament which put the liberals in office would have about run it's course. i Now, however, the Asuuith ministry | has more than four years to run and will, in all human probability, enact | Irish home rule, Welsh dfseStablish- ment do away with plural voting, es- | tablish manhood suffrage and pave the way for an equitable distribution of seats in parliament All of which is as i gal and wormwood to the unregenerate tories. | What a pity all these things could not have been foreseen. That is, it's 1 d pity for the unionists.
 | Tner6 IS no QOuDt that the llDeTdlS have lost ground because of the insur- ance bill. It may be that the ultimate result will be to strengthen them, as | the admirers of the chancellor of the exchequer claims it will. The union ists have certainly played skillful poli- | tics in marshalling all the opposition which so comprehensive scheme was bound to create, but Asquith and Lloyd George have the courage of their con | a me | through, confident that 1t will prove a l a beneficent measure to the people de- | spite its admitted defects.
 l Another matter which Is giving the government no little concern is the situation in Persia There is no doubt . that a great many strong liberals sym pathize with Persia and with MT. Schus- ter, and resent England being used as they believe as the "catspaw" with which to pull Russias chestnuts out of the fire. | There is no little discussion over the open charge made Mr. James Douglas, in current periodical, to the effect tha; l honors are openly for sale in England | MT. Douglas says:
 "Thc sale of honors is like the sale of advowsons-a traffic not too widely ad- vertised but knighthoods, baronetcies and peerages are purchaseable; and there is even tariff for these titles. The price paid varies according to tho status ! of the buyer. But the market price Is approximately as follows:
 l. Knghthood .......... .......E 1o.000 l. f5afOnetcy ...........'.'..s... J,VoU Peefage .............-........ ioo,VW
 "The cash is usually paid by install- laents in the form of subscriptions to the i secret party funds of the two great DO l iitical parties.
 "In the last 10 years there have been I m fewer than 96 new peers or these not more than 49 were the ordinary and normal rewards for public and political services. Of the remainder, no fewer thar 37 were bought peerages, while 10 may 1 be charitably classed as being doubtful l Thus, we may compile a fairly accurate 1 table of peerages created in the past ! | years:
 Earned peerages s......,............ ~
 Bought peerages .................. y
 Doubtful .......................... iV
 
 rotal ......... %
 Thus it appears that between 10 and J ! per cent of peerages are bought
 'srhc debascmcnt of the honors confer