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Show . ENGLISH POLITICS. As a result of the action of the house of lords in refusing to pass the budget which would impose taexs upon the land-holding classes hitherto untaxed. un-taxed. King Edward dissolved parliament, and an election will be held in January to decide whether the people of England approve or reject the budget as presented to them. Students of English politics are agreed that no matter what the result of the forthcoming elections, the political power of the house of lords will be completely broken. If the present Liberal house and ministry are sustained in insisting on the budget, Premier Asquith has announced an-nounced that the first act of the new parliament will be the re-enactment of all the provisions of the budget so offensive to the lords, and in case the lords again reject the budget, dire consequences are predicted. One result of the action of the lords in rejecting the budget which is deeply resented is that the cause of home rule for Ireland has been rlol a vnA The house of lords for -three hundred years has always given perfunctory assent to anything presented pre-sented to them in the budget, and as long as that condition existed the peers have been tolerated as a necessary evil. Their refusal to assent to the budget makes it illegal for the king's agents to collect col-lect taxes with which to carry on the government, a condition, in the nature of things, which cannot be suffered to endure for any great length of time.-The time.-The action was taken, too, against the advice of a number of the leading peers, who foresaw the consequences. con-sequences. The election next month will be watched with interest on this side of the Atlantic. Undoubtedly the British nation is facing one of the greatest crises since the signing of the Magna Charta, and the election is equally beyond question the most important since that preceding the passage pas-sage of the reform bill some seventy-five years ago. We do not anticipate any revolution or bloodshed as the result of the crisis, nor any impairment of the efficiency of the British government, but we would not be surprised, nor would we express regret re-gret if the house of lords passed out of existence entirely. It has long been an incubus which has delayed reform in Ireland and has taxed the poor to the point of exhaustion. The institution can be dispensed with without affecting the stability of the British government. |