On Tuesday night the skirmish was renewed, but with less
vigour, and terminated at 2 o'clock. On this occasion Mr. Morley was left in charge of the House and was made the spokesman of the Government, on the ground that he had been the Minister who was most aggrieved by the action of the Lords in rejecting the Evicted Tenants Bill. But none the less he declared that he would never con- sent to initiate a great constitutional policy of this critical kind in rash and hasty pledges at the fag-end of an exhaust- ing Session, and without very careful deliberation on a step of such extreme importance. The House, he said, would be making itself ridiculous if it insisted on a definite declaration of the policy the Government would adopt at such a time. Eventually, the vote for the permanent staff of the House of Lords was carried by 76 to 45, majority 31,—Mr. Morley denying explicitly (and Mr. Balfour supporting him in denying), that the Government had made any appeal to the Tories for help, an accusation with which Mr. Lloyd-George had taunted them. None the less, the Government will hardly be able to resist the declaration of war against the House of Lords beyond the opening of next Session, if the Irish and Welsh and English Radicals continue in the same mind. And that means, we imagine, the wreck of the Bills to which the Government had foolishly trusted for converting the country to the policy of this great constitutional enterprise.
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