It is just eleven years since Mr. Asquith's Act to strip the House} of Lords of its power to veto a money Bill became law, and it will} be within the recollection of most} people that that Act contained al promise to proceed with the reform, of the House of Lords, a promise! which Mr. Asquith notoriously failed even to attenrpt to fulfil. It} is a curious fact that the Prime! Minister, under whom the reform! proposals reported to-day are introduced, was the very Chancellor wf the Exchequer whose Budget} in 1909 was vetoed by the Lords, and thereby the old quarrel be-j tween Lords and Commons—the basis of which was that a Liberal Administration in the Lower House} could never get its reforms through} the predominantly Conservative Upper House—was brought to a head. The issue was not disposed of until 1911, partly because of the general election which the: veto precipitated, partly through the late King's _—_ mediation. Opinion was so evenly divided at; the election that it was principally, if not solely by the aid of the Irish vote that Mr. Asquith got his Act, through, a fact which was! naturally commented on with some} clitterness.. By many quite dispassionate people it was also deplored that practically unchecked power was given by the Act to the Commons, and this feeling has been intensified in recent years by the dwindling prestige of the Lower House and the corresponding rise
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.