As regards money bills, the Speaker is the last person in the world who ought to be intrusted with such duties as the Parliament Bill confers upon him. If we are to have to secure the support of Mr above party strife, and the Redmond, which their accept- latter by the unfettered disance of the amendment would cussion of important measures immediately convert into active preceding a final appeal to the hostility. Of course they will popular judgment. reject it, and equally of course we hope the Lords will adhere to it. If Government then prorogues Parliament and opens another session directly, they may introduce the Bill again and persuade the king to create a sufficient number of Peers to carry it through the Upper House. It is as yet, we believe, uncertain whether his Majesty will consent to this extreme measure; and if he does not, Ministers, we suppose, will resign. A Unionist Government will be formed, and an appeal to the country take place as soon as possible. If the king does consent, we must, of course, be prepared for the worst, and the coercion of the Upper House will only occur a little later than it might have done had the Lords rejected the second reading of the Parliament Bill. For unless there is an appeal to the people in the meantime, to this it must come in the end. The other two amendments are, of course, very necessary, though not very likely to be accepted by the Government. If the king is to be dragged into the political arena to turn the scale as often as the Second Chamber is opposed to the Government, the freedom of the sovereign and the freedom of the people take wing together. The former can only be secured by the constitutional doctrine which sets the Crown a written constitution we must have a proper tribunal detached from the political atmosphere to interpret it. The Speaker is the guardian of the privileges of the House of Commons, and must necessarily see things from the House of Commons point of view. He does not decide their privileges: he protects them. But he is now called upon to protect both Lords and Commons at the same time: to guard the privileges of both. It is putting him into an altogether false position, such as affords no guarantee whatever against the abuse of tacking. We are quite certain that the country will never endure such mockery as that. a Whatever the ultimate issue of this unhappy conflict, all Conservatives, all Unionists, all who, without being party men, do not wish to break with the past, must feel that they have now lost what can never be recovered-an integral part of our ancient constitution, which for so many centuries has been regarded by the inhabitants of Great Britain as the nearest approach to a perfect political institution which the world has ever seen. But they have not lost everything; and it remains for them to fight for what is left with as much vigour and tenacity as if nothing had been taken. The world may depend upon it that we are not going to allow this rising revolution to run its course to the bitter end looked forward to by its authors without a struggle which will live in the pages of history while the name of Great Britain still survives. We know what the revolutionary party are, and that they are not likely to desist from their efforts to disintegrate society as long as its defenders show any sign of weakness. Let the whole people of Great Britain remember that they are to use a familiar phrase the trustees of posterity. Will not the consciousness of the great trust reposed in them rouse them to action and make them show themselves worthy of it. Patriotism surely is not dead in the breasts of Englishmen and Scotsmen, or become a mere theme for schoolboys. Can they listen with equanimity to what is daily said of their glorious past, or to what they are threatened with in an equally inglorious future? We cannot believe it. Are they willing to lose Empire, Colonies, and Commerce, which must infallibly be the result of the revolution if successfully carried out? And what is to prevent it? Here we come to very grave considerations indeed. If this Bill becomes law in its present shape, without any such amendments as are now contemplated, the nation will be divided into two parties as bitterly hostile to each other as the antagonists of the seventeenth century. Half the nation at least, as Lord Camperdown well said, if not two-thirds of it, will be writhing under a sense of injustice and oppression, and trembling for all they hold dear. What is likely to follow when two halves of an angry people confront each other in this spirit? The Bill contains within itself the seeds of civil war. It lies with the people of Great Britain to avert this calamity. But they must be up and doing while it is yet day: the night cometh, when action will be useless. And even if the enemy triumph in the end, let us not be exposed to the painful reflection that it was through our own negligence and indifference. INDEX TO VOL. CLXXXIX. Abbasiyeh, surrender of, to the British, 'About Edwin Drood' by Professor ABOUT MARIE-CLAIRE,' 699. Agra, the bazaars of, 260. Akhmin, the ancient Egyptian city of, Albania, Young Turkish reforms in, 824 American literature, character of, 412 et seq. Arabi Pasha, defeat of, at Tel-el-Kebir, 370 et seq.-flight of, to Cairo, 372, Argentina, democratic government of, Asia Minor, reforms in, under the new ASK A POLICEMAN! 265. Asquith, Mr, decline and fall of, 565 Audoux, Marguerite, the story of Balfour, Mr, on reform of the House of BARBIZON, 225. Barbizon, changed character of, 225 et Bazaars of India, description of some of Beachcomber's Club, the, of South Belgium, preservation of the neutrality Benares, the bazaars of, 260. BENJIE AND THE BOGEY MAN, 190. BIG BASS IN THE GULF OF ISMIDT, 614. Bismarck, Count, Viscount Goschen's BOGEY MAN, BENJIE AND THE, 190. Brazil, democratic government of, 297 surgeon, 330-literary productions of, Cairo, flight of Arabi Pasha to, 374- CAIRO, THE CAVALRY MARCH TO, 370. CAVALRY MARCH TO CAIRO, THE, 370. Coffee plantation, an English, in South Coleridge, friendship of John Rickman with, 206-political life of, 207 et seq. Conscription, application of the Con- CORNER, THE STAIN IN THE, 384. County Championship cricket-match of Cricket matches, excuses for the CRICKET SEASON OF 1910, THE, 86. Crown Colonies, scheme of reciprocal DECEMBER, A ROSE IN, 393. DICKENS, A MYSTERY OF, 670. Diderot, life of, by Lord Morley, 416. DOVE, THE SCEPTRE WITH THE, 729. eighteenth centuries, 852 et seq. Eastern defence system, scheme of a EGYPT, THE FRENCH INVASION OF, IN 1798, AN INCIDENT IN THE, 499. ELECTIONS, THE, AND AFTER, 150. upon, 413 et seq. FAILURE, A STUDY IN, 324. FOREIGN LEGION, THE, 581. -- - Franco-German War, part taken by the "Dartmoor, the Gentle Shepherd of," FRENCH INVASION OF EGYPT IN 1798, incident of, 288 et seq. VOL. CLXXXIX.-NO. MCXLVIII. AN INCIDENT IN THE, 499. 3 L French Revolution, Lord Acton's His- FROM THE OUTPOSTS: A QUIET DAY "Gentle Shepherd of Dartmoor, the," Gentlemen v. Players, the cricket-match George V., crowning of, in Westminster Gorst, Sir Eldon, report on Egypt of, Goschen, Viscount, independence of, as Government of India, unconstitutional Great Mosque of Damascus, the, 544. et seq. GULF OF ISMIDT, BIG BASS IN THE, Gustavus Adolphus, championship of Hamilton, Sir Ian, on compulsory mili- HOLIDAY IN SOUTH AFRICA, A: IX., --- House of Lords, the, Government Hydrophobia, an Indian Pasteur In- INCIDENT IN THE FRENCH INVASION India, scheme of defensive union be- IN, 258. INDIA, "SHOPPING " to Indian unrest, the presence of, not new, INSPECTOR OF Goz DAOUD, the, 214. ITALIAN VERSE, the Oxford Book of, Jews, help rendered by the, in the Young Turks' reforms, 831 et seq. 130. Lamb, Charles, friendship of, with John LAMB'S FRIEND THE CENSUS TAKER, Lansdowne, Lord, the Reconstitution 'Le Matin,' Mr Lloyd George's inter- Leopardi, the poetry of, 473 et seq. terview with the editor of, 285. LOVE DRAMA, AN ARGENTINE, 761. |