Lord Haldane, who spoke at Aberdeen on Monday, under- took,
"as one who knew these things from the inside," to correct the account which Mr. Balfour had given of "the traitorous advice given by the Government to the Sovereign when they obtained from him a pledge that they should have the right to misuse the Royal Prerogative eight months after the pledge was given." Lord Haldane declared that they did not ask the King to give them any pledge, and that the King made no bargain. It was clear when the Conference broke down that the Resolutions were going to be rejected. They accordingly said to the King that it was impossible for them to submit them to the country without the assurance that they should pass into law in the shape of the Bill in which they had already been embodied if the country decided in its favour. The King took the only course possible for a constitutional monarch—the absolutely right course. "He said : 'What the country decides that will I accept.'" When the House of Lords threatened to reject the Parliament Bill the King did the only thing a constitutional monarch could do. He most wisely handed over to his Ministers his assent to the creation of sufficient peers to carry the decision of the nation into effect against the opposition of the House of Lords.
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