Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, we must say in fairness, does not
apparently support the extreme doctrine on the right to advise a dissolution professed by some other Labour leaders. In the New Leader he says : " The idea that a Prime Minister can go to the King just when it suits himself and, within a short time after an election, ask for a dissolution, is absurd." He nevertheless asserts that the Royal prerogative has already been transferred to the Prime Minister :- " I should on no ground leave to the monarch the invidious and dangerous task of being the guardian. For the time being, and until we see a little more clearly how things are to- work out, the Prime Minister must retain what he has gained by constitu- tional practice."
Again he says : " Whatever Prime Minister takes office now, he will, upon his resignation, give the best advice he can to the Spereign, and be guided by circumstances what that advice is to be." In fine the decision seems to be left too much to the personal judgment of the Prime Minister.
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