The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-08

Much interest has been aroused in Dolit- ical circles by an unofficial programme which has been put forward for the unionist party.
 The principle proposals are: l. Disestablishment.
 With regard to the reform of the house of lords, it is proposed to eliminate en- tirely the hereditary system, and to set up second chamber elected on thorough ly democratic lines.
 This is in advance of the scheme put forward by Lord Landsdowne and lIr. Balfour, who proposed to retain a limitc1 number of hereditary peers in the re- formed house. These were to be elected by the peers from amongst themselves.
 In advocating disestablishment the stu-
 thors of the unofficial programme have doubtless been influenced by the action of those spiritual peers who supported the veto bill during it's passage through the | upper house.
 Commenting on the programme the Pali | Mall Gazette says:
 "The peerage has recorded it's own fail
 ure, both in intelligence and character, to meet the necessities of the time, and | no unfonist leader will again venture to | prejudice his programme of reform ny | trying to find a corner for the emblems
 of hcredity. Henceforth unionists wili
 have nothing to do with any second cham | pci tldt IS Hol lully ana IfanKly 0eniO- | cratic, and this in itself will make an
 immense difference to the prospects with which they address themselves to the elec- l tsrate.
 | The action of the bishops, too, has | broken an entanglement that has long
 been injurious, and set us free to con- 1 sder afresh all that class of questions in | which religious preconceptions are so po- | tent factor For the future the union- I aclxnnWla6rcG fr,r ir,
 either for the privileges of the established l church or for the status of the voluntary 1 schools.
 "Without animus upon the one side or | the other. it will be at liberty to follow | the principle of "the square deal' plac- ing the general interests of the communi- l ty in the foreground and looking for
 practical solutions that will suppress tho | noxious element of clerical faction in our | public life. UnonisIn has been very
 greatly handicapped by historical assoeia- tions, which made it extremely difficIlt for self-respectng nonconfornist to de-
 clare himself either an imperiaist or a
 tariff reformer.
 'The bishops. unconsciously no doubt.
 decreed the removal of those barriers,
 and conferred on us a valuable emanci- patton, when they helped to betray the constitution and launched us into a polit-
 ical world of new beginnings.
 It seems curious to see the young Scots opposing the nomination of w. c. C. 1 Gladstone, grandson of the G. o. M., as liberal candidate for Kilmarnock Burghs, on the ground that he is an Englishman. As matter of fact young Gladstone
 has never lived south of the Tweed, The | 'Hadstone's are 0 good Scottish family l of middle class pedigree, and married
 scotchwomen. generation after genera tion, although William Ewart broke the
 sequence by marrying Glynne of North
 Wales, thus following a national Scottish proclivity for marrying Welsh heiresses. On his mothers side the young squire of l Hawarden is even more Scottish. She
 is Stuart, daughter of the 12th and
 last Lord Blantyre. The Marquis of Ailsa. a great landowner in Ayrshire, in which county, by the way. the Kilmar-
 nook constituency is situated, is an uncle
 by marriage of the candidate.