It will be convenient here to give the substance of
Mr. Asquith's undelivered speech which was issued to the Press in the evening. After reviewing the history of the Parliament Bill it discusses the tribunal which it is proposed to put in place of the Speaker to decide doubtful points. It would, according to Mr. Asquith, " be in effect predominant over the House of Commons in matters of finance and over both Houses in legislative matters which the tribunal holds to be at once of great gravity and insufficiently considered by the electorate." Mr. Asquith believes that if the " junta," as he calls the tribunal, were created it would put the House of Commons in respect of finance "in a lower position than it has occupied for two hundred years." Even more grotesque, says Mr. Asquith, is the proposal to give the " junta " the power to exclude from the operation of Clause 2 measures of " great gravity" or measures " insufficiently considered by the electorate," even though those measures have been before the electors at a General Election and have been passed three times by the Commons. The weak point of all this is that the speech positively argues as though the subsequent refer- ence to a poll of the people would make no difference to the powers of the "junta " ! Ultimately it is only too clear that Mr. Asquith is afraid of the people.
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