MR. LLOYD GEORGE AND THE LAW LORDS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Snt,—I have noticed one or two speeches by Labour Members of Parliament in which the House of Lords as a Court of Law and the House of Lords as a Legislative Chamber have, with reference to the Osborne judgment, been either maliciously or ignorantly confused. This brought to my recollection a speech by Mr. Lloyd George delivered at Bacup in November, 1904, an important portion of which was devoted to the advocacy of self-government in local affairs for Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. For Wales he pleaded the right to settle her own affairs in such matters as education and tem- perance. With regard to Scotland he proceeded as follows :— "They are quarrelling about the Churches there. There are the Wee Kirkers and the Free Kirkers, and they are quarrelling about doctrines several of us never heard about, and they settle religious questions of that sort in the most irreligious assembly in the world. (Laughter and cheers.) It was settled, I believe, by the House of Lords (laughter), by men who had never been inside a Presbyterian church, and I should not be surprised to hear that they were not very often in any other (laughter) ; but is not that a matter for the people of Scotland to settle, their own religious
• affairs—their own religious doctrines which nobody can under- stand but Scotsmen ? (Hear, hear.) The same thing applies to
. the people of Ireland Take these things out of the hands of the Imperial Parliament."—Manchester Guardian, November 7th, 1904.
The above speech was delivered subsequent to the judgment of the House of Lords in the Scotch Free Church case. The whole passage has clearly only one object,—namely, to repre- sent a judgment of the Law Lords as a legislative action of the Second Chamber, and by this misrepresentation to injure that Chamber in the opinions of his hearers.
• I thoroughly understand and sympathise with your reluctance, so far as your duty permits, to join in any issue with Mr. Lloyd George ; but the above quotation is such an example of his besetting vice that I have thought attention should be drawn to it by publicity in your columns. Mr. Lloyd George's vice—misrepresentation of facts and suppression of truth—appears in almost every platform speech he makes, • and is far more grave than his indulgence in bad language, which may be due to bad training and ensuing lack of self- control, faults which are not essentially immoral. I have only further to point out that, the context dealing as it does with local self-government, the reference to the House of Lords as an "assembly," and the epithet "irreligious," forbid his sheltering himself under the pretext that he spoke against an English Court dealing with Scots law.—I am, Sir, &c., G. H. ORMEROD. 54 St. George's Road, Warwick Square, S. W.
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