25 DECEMBER 1909, Page 2

In the course of a speech at North Sunderland on

Monday Sir Edward Grey raised the point that it was unfair that the House of Lords should have the power of forcing a Dis- solution without running any risk that its own Members would not be returned at the Election. "If the action of the Lords was to be the rule, it could only be carried on by a Chamber which was responsible for its own actions." Speaking at Belford on Wednesday Sir Edward Grey maintained that be and otherLiberals had been advocating the principles of the Budget for the last twenty years. Mr. Wyndham, speaking at Dover; said that the Prime Minister had declared that the only issue before the public was the position of the House of Lords. Yet in the same speech he had included three other issues,—those of Home-rule, education, and licensing. " A bribe was offered. to Mr. Redmond ; hopes were held out to Dr. Clifford; Mr. Snowden was told that he need not despair of the social millennium." But the really important questions before the country were national defence and unemployment. "At the Albert Hall Mr. Asquith ignored both those questions." We may note that in a powerful speech at Burnley on Tuesday Lord Curzon stated that he most earnestly believed that the Unionist Party were going to take up the reform of the House of Lords.