The Prime Minister's Address.

Mr. Asquith, in his address to his constituents, said :

"The appeal which is now being made to you and to the country at large may almost be said to be narrowed to a single issue. But upon its determination, in one sense or the other, hangs the whole future of democratic government. Are the people, through their freely chosen representatives, to have control, not only over finance and administrative policy, but over the making of their laws? Or are we to continue the one-sided system under which a Tory majority, however small in size and casual in creation, has a free run of the Statute Book, while from Liberal legislation, however clear may be the message of the polls, the forms of the Constitution persistently withhold a fair and even chance.

"You will not, I am sure, be misled in the judgment you are called upon to pronounce by the belated and delusive composition which the House of Lords is, at the last moment, being advised to offer to its critics. The schemes which are now being put forward, in the hope of disguising the real issue, would result, if they were carried into law, in the creation of a Second Chamber predominantly Conservative in character, practically inopera tive while there is a Tory majority in the House of Commons, completely independent of the prerogatives of the Crown, and capable of interposing an even more formidable Veto than the present House of Lords upon the prompt and effective translation into law of the declared will of the nation.

"I ask you to repeat, with still greater emphasis, the approval which only eleven months ago you gave to the proposals of his Majesty's Government.'

Mr. Balfour's Address. The Leader of Opposition, in his address to the electors of the City of London, said :"In less than a year since the last General Election the Government has resolved again to appeal to the country. They have selected the season at which the register least accurately represents the constituencies, and which is most inconvenient to trade; and have done so without the excuse of a Parliamentary defeat in either House, and with no visible breach in the strange coalition of parties which keeps them in office.

"It is in these circumstances that I ask you for the third time to honour me with your suffrages. I have little to add to the detailed statement of my views which I sent to every elector for the City of London last December. Now, as then, Tariff Reform, National Defence, the wider extension of freehold ownership, Poor Law and other social reforms, are vital parts of the programme to which the party with which I am connected stands pledged. "Now, as then, we are resolved that the party of re volution shall not, under the thin disguise of

an attack on the Upper House, impair the liberties of the people.

"Our principles on this last subject are plain, and we share them with all the great men who have helped to develop our Constitution, or have been concerned in framing free institutions for self-governing communities beyond Ministry, even in the Parliament now drawing the limits of these islands. Nor would the to a close, have obtained serious support for their destructive policy were it not forced upon them by their Socialist and Nationalist allies. It is because both Nationalists and Socialists harmony with the considered will of the people are aware that their darling projects are not in that they press for the abolition of the only moments will enable that will to prevail. Be. Constitutional safeguard which at critical Socialism and Home Rule. hind the Single Chamber conspiracy lurk

"The alternative scheme of Reform which Government, now been brought to the notice we desire to see adopted has, in spite of the of the country. It is true that a full Parlia

mentary discussion of it has been made impossible by the date selected for the Dissolution. tuencies have not enjoyed that assistance in It is also true that in consequence the constijudging of its merits which they had a right to

demand.

Yet I cannot doubt that if they fairly Unionist Party offers them-fiscal, social, Imsurvey the constructive programme which the perial, and Constitutional-they will feel that on these lines, and on these lines only, is ordered progress possible."

The Referendum.

On the evening of Tuesday, November 29th, Mr. Balfour addressed to a great meeting in the Albert Hall a speech which was in some respects the most notable incident of the brief contest. His opponents, he said, had argued that the Referendum proposed by Lord Lansdowne (see p. 352) was at best a one-sided expedient, since it would only be employed in relation to those far-reaching measures upon which Lords and Commons disagreed-in other words, it would be a check upon Liberal but not upon Unionist legislation. "They forget," said Mr. Balfour, "the whole argument which they have been advancing for months, and try to put us in a hole by asking, 'Will you refer any really vital question upon which the two Houses are agreed, and in particular, will you refer Tariff Reform to the Referendum?" "I frankly say," continued Mr. Balfour, "that without question Tariff Reform is a great change. I admit that this election, or any election, perhaps certainly this electioncannot be described as taken upon Tariff Reform simply, and I have not the least objection to submit the principles of Tariff Reform to a Referendum." He invited Mr. Asquith to Live a similar undertaking with regard to Home Rule. Two days later, in a speech at Wolverhampton, Mr. Asquith declined this challenge. After referring to the working of the Referendum in Switzerland, the United States, Canada, and Australia, he said (we quote the Times report):

"I have given during the last twelve months very careful study to the evidence afforded by these countries, and the result is that I have

come to two conclusions: First, that on the whole the Referendum has proved in practice a most disappointing and unsatisfactory way of ascertaining public opinion, and one proof of that is, that a relatively small percentage, indeed a very small percentage, of the electors will take the trouble to record their votes on the Referendum as compared with those who go to the polling-booths at the General Election. My second conclusion is this: the Referendum has only succeeded partially, even where it has had a partial success. It is in countries whose social and political conditions are totally different from and far less highly developed than our own. What are the effects of it? In the first place, in regard to matters not of vital importance it gives, as I have said,

an

uncertain sound and is no trustworthy organ or index of the will and opinion of the people; in the next place, on matters of firstrate importance it is, or it would be in this country, in effect a General Election, with all the cost, all the turmoil, all the disturbance of business, but without its decisive results, and further-and this is the most important objection of all-once engraft the Referendum on our Constitution as part and parcel of its normal working machinery, you impair, and in time you will destroy, the whole sense of responsibility, both of Ministers and of members of the House of Commons-which is the salt and the salvation of our political life."

In a speech at Reading on Dec. 1st, and again at Grimsby on Dec. 2nd, Mr. Balfour repeated his promise that a Tariff Reform Bill should be submitted to Referendum before enactment. The undertaking was received with some disfavour by a few ardent Tariff Reformers, but it drew from Lord Cromer and other prominent Unionist Free-Traders a declaration of their intention to support the Unionist leaders.

The Liberals and Home Rule.

Mr.

A week later (Dec. 7th) Mr. Asquith, speaking in East Fife, stated that it was the intention of the Liberal Party, if returned to power, to grant Ireland a measure of Home Rule. Balfour, referring a few days later to this statement, declared it to be an outrage on democracy that the Liberals should wait until 500 seats had been filled before announcing their intention to introduce a Home Rule Bill. Mr. Lloyd George, speaking at Newtown, Montgomeryshire, on Dec 12th, stated that there would be a clause in the Home Rule Bill to prevent the establishment of any State religion in Ireland.

Unionists and the Parliament Bill.

In a speech at Dartford, on Dec. 12th, Mr. Balfour said he was not prepared to admit, even if the Government got a majority, that the Parliament Bill would become law. If it did become law, let them not for one moment suppose that it was going to end the matter. They were not going to sit down under so preposterous a scheme hastily cooked and thrown at the hea of the two Houses of Parliament he had almost said the Sovereignin the way the Parliament Bill had been.

The Pollings.

turn of 11 Unionist and 4 Liberal candidates. Among the Unionists were Mr. Balfour and his colleague in the representation of the City of London, and Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. Among the 4 Liberal members was Mr. A. A. Haworth, who was returned unopposed for South Manchester owing to the fact that the Unionist candidate was five minutes too late to secure nomination.

On the following day (Saturday, Dec. 3rd) polling took place in 7 Metropolitan and 59 provincial constituencies, returning in all 69 members. At the January election these 69 seats were filled as follows: Liberal 35, Labour 8, Unionist 26. The December election filled them thus: Liberals 33, Labour 7, Unionists 29-a net gain of 3 seats to the Unionists. There were also a number of unopposed returns. so that at the close of the first day's polling more than one-sixth of the new House had been elected.

As the election proceeded the daily gains and losses were so evenly balanced that at no period of the contest was either party more than five net gains in advance of the other. The last pollings took place on Monday, Dec. 19th, the final result being as follows:

The first elections to the new House took place on Friday, Dec, 2nd, with the unopposed re

2

* The figures here show a Gladstonian majority of 42, but before the General Election of 1895 this had fallen to 28.