NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ON Thursday afternoon Mr. Asquith, in answering questions addressed to him in regard to the fate of the Budget, made statements which in certain quarters have been represented as materially affecting the situation and disposing of the allegation that the Budget is dead. A careful study of these answers convinces us, however, that there is nothing to alter in what we have written elsewhere on the political situation. Mr. Asquith's statements show what, of course, we have never doubted,—that the Government would very much like to save the Budget if they could, and that they mean to make a show of saving it. They however, do not alter the fact that the Government cannot save it without the help of Mr. Redmond, and that Mr. Redmond, though be would be glad to oblige if he could, dare not incur the odium of allowing the Budget to pass, except on one condition. That condition is that he should be able to point to the simultaneous abolition of the veto of the Lords. To be able to point to a strongly worded Resolution which has been dismissed by the Lords with what Dr. Johnson called "frigid equanimity" will be of no use to him whatever. But we all know that Mr. Asquith cannot abolish the veto of the Lords in the present Parliament. Therefore Mr. Redmond will be compelled to say : "No abolition of the veto, no Budget." Unless, then, Mr. Redmond, for some reason or other, is suddenly able to change his mind and alter the whole attitude of Ireland and of the Nationalist Party, it would seem as if nothing could now prevent that second General Election which Mr. Redmond tells his friend Mr. Patrick Ford will be upon us in a few weeks.
