The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-08-12

though successive Conservative gov
ernments have at times, been able to
ignore its spirit by reason of their
majorities in the lower house. When
a Liberal government has been in
power no serious obstacle was offered
it until 1909, when a movement was
set on foot to settle forever the con
stitutionality of the resolution of 1878
and, at the same time, to reform the
upper house in accordance with mod
ern ideas of popular government.
The Budget in question which
brought matters to a climax was
amended by the House of Lords, re-
jected in that form by the Commons,
and returned to the House of Lords
where no action was taken except to
decide that the upper house would
abide by the will of the people. A
general election followed and then the
Lords passed the Budget without
amendment.
The same thing happened last year
the Budget passed by the lower
house was amended by the upper, and
rejected in that form by the lower,
and an appeal was made to the coun-
try-but before it reached the last
stage of the former bill a serious
movement had been gathering to pre-
vent similar deadlocks in the future.
The House of Lords must be reform
ed or it must reform itself.
The former idea included schemes
ranging from the abolition of the up
rer house and the doing away with
, the hereditary right to sit there to the
composition Of a Senate such as OBJ.
tains in Democratic states ana an
elected body whose powers should be
- absolutely limited and detained by q
e written Constitution.
The latter idea, that the Lord.
" should reform themselves-include
schemes ranging from the assertion Of
the absolute supremacy of the upper
Ihouse to devices similar to those
., amendments Incorporated in the pres.
ent Veto bill.
There are matter rests, The Lords
have passed the Veto bill with theil
amendments. These amendments will
h, Nbe. rejected by the Commons. Mr.
Asquith, as the Liberal Premier, viii
o announce that if the Lords continue tC
N reject the bill in the form in which
"A it was received by them he will bC
compelled to give the King such ad
vice which will cause the creation o
sufficient Liberal Peers to insure tn
passage of the bill in the upper house
Rather than have this happen it /
expected that Lord Lansdowne will o.
Tuesday or Wednesday next move tn
acceptance of the bill as it came froT
the Commons, looking for its repeal a
soon as Tories and Unionists sha
again be in office.
70 The situation, with conservativ
n. spirit, is put in nutshell by TIL
c. Daily Telegraph of London as follows
ba ITO insist or to yield! There ar
oil two counsels, and two counsels onl!
or before the Unionist Party at the pres
IN ent time. The choice is severely linn
~ tied. There is no middle way. Eithe
be the Peers must refrain from insistn
.,r upon their main amendments, and S
m acquiesce in the passing of the Parlia
n ment bill, or else, by insisting upo
N their amendments, they must force tn
Government to overcome their resist
70 ance by Wholesale creation of Peers
ra by general consent there is n
ba longer any talk within the party of
general election. That eXpedient
bv ruled out. Even supposing, which
I'M by no means so certain as is some
10 times assumed, that the deciding wor
- on that head would rest with tn
d. Unionists alone, it is felt that it woul
ad be madness to resort to so perilous a
m eXpedient. Questions would certainl
be raised which ought not to be rail-
dc ed. The reckless and inscription
he would seize the occasion to drag tn
all Crown into the quarrel, either on on
de pretext or another, and the resu
he would be deplorahle,
ot- However, there is no need to diI
to cuss that, now that all talk of anoth'
lis general election has entirely droppe
M and the only question under considers
ch ton is whether the House of Lor,
led is to compel the Government to NAL
lPeers Once more, the tacit assum