Later in the day on Wednesday the disillusionment of the
Radicals was completed by Mr. Asquith's very firm and sensible statements in Parliament. He not only declared in emphatic words that he took entire responsibility for the King's speech, but mentioned what every man who knew anything about the procedure in such matters had guessed already, that the King had shown his speech to the Prime Minister before it was made. Mr. Asquith added that after it was made it had been the unanimous wish of the whole Conference that it should be given to the Press. The fact that the King showed his speech to his advisers and that they did not object was, of course, tantamount to its endorsement by them. Had they regarded its words as censuring them or as being otherwise unacceptable, they would, we may feel sure, have considered a determination to maintain the speech as involving their dismissal, and they would atonee have resigned their offices. Mr. Asquith stated that his Majesty throughout the crisis bad "followed the strictest constitutional precedents, and had taken no steps up till now except in consultation with and on the advice of his Ministers." The whole supposed unconstitutional and partisan action of the King was, in fact, the wildest mare's nest.
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