BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE.—THE REFORM RESOLUTIONS. (Hansard, 8 June 1910)

§ THE LORD PRIVY SEAL AND SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (THE EARL OF CREWE)

My Lords, the House will recollect that, as arrangements were before the deplorable event which has so affected us all, my noble friend on the Cross Benches (Lord Rosebery) had put down his Resolutions for the first day of our reassembling. Now I understand that be has so far taken them off the Paper as to place them in the list of Motions which are put down without any date named, and I understand that he does not propose to bring them forward for a short time. The House will also remember that we had arranged that we should not take the Government Resolutions until after those of my noble friend had been discussed. We have no desire to depart from that arrangement, and therefore we do not propose to deal in any way with our Resolutions until those of my noble friend have been brought forward. I do not know whether my noble friend has anything to say on the matter, but in any case it will probably be for the convenience of the House if the whole question as regards the discussion of this particular matter stands over for a week or two, when perhaps we shall be in a better position to speak more definitely. As regards other business, your Lordships have the Paper at your disposal, and I think you will see that there is not a great deal of business before us at this moment.

THE EARL OF ROSEBERY

My Lords, what my noble friend has said is quite true, that my Motion has passed into the category of those for which no day is 837 named. That is partly in its origin due to a misunderstanding on my part. I thought the Resolutions were put down for the first day after the recess, and that that day would automatically pass from May 26 to June 8, but in any case it was not my intention to proceed with them to-day. I had, I admit, been very anxious to do so, but I have received intimations from influential quarters that, in the opinion of those who are well qualified to judge, it is better that I should not proceed on the first day of our reassembling. There was, I think, in the minds of those who so spoke an idea that the opportunity might be taken of the recent bereavement of the nation for some form of pacification as between the acute demands of the two Parties on this great constitutional issue. There Was also a feeling, I think, that it was not desirable to embarrass the beginning of a new reign and the personality of a new King by pushing forward issues affecting the Constitution so grave as those which we have been discussing this year. Of course that, in my judgment, does not apply to my Resolutions. They are a matter, at this stage at any rate, for the House itself. They are the principles which the House of Lords desires, as I hope, to lay down with reference to some future plan of reform to be carried out by some future Executive Government. But they have not passed beyond that stage, and indeed they have not arrived at the stage at which they exist at all as Resolutions of this House. But it was said, and perhaps truly, that if I were to press on these Resolutions I should seem to invite reprisals—though, as I have already pointed 838 out, this is not a matter of reprisals; that I should at any rate possibly act as a provocation to those who are not unwilling to be provoked; and that it would be said that my action, or rather our action—for it is not my action, but the action of this House—would be taken as raising the question afresh at a time when there was a general desire for peace. Nothing, in my judgment, could be more unfounded in logic than any such pretence of provocation in proceeding with our Resolutions. This is not a new matter for us. To those who desire the reform of the House of Lords the question has not arisen since the rejection of the Finance Bill of last year. For six-and-twenty years some of us have been working to try to bring this matter to a favourable issue, and therefore I venture to say that, except as offering a favourable opportunity for carrying forward our reforms, our Resolutions have nothing to do with the Veto Resolutions of the Government. Therefore, when I say I shall not proceed with them to-day, or perhaps to-morrow, or immediately, I have no intention of deferring them as being in relation to the Resolutions of the Government. Our Resolutions stand apart and on their own foundation, and though I will not willingly, directly or indirectly, do anything to provoke a spirit of animosity or to prevent a spirit of pacification, I must say that as regards our Resolutions they must remain within our own control.