In short the explanation of the Prime Minister's cool reception
by a section of the House is not that he was too indefinite but that he was too definite. The result of the election is admitted to be that the nation has voted full powers to an Executive Committee under the forms of Parliamentary Government. Mr. Lloyd was right in saying that the nation " wanted to feel the hand of a ruler." The real debates will take place in the Cabinet ; and members of Parliament will mistake their mandate if they try to make themselves into a parellel Cabinet. The lesson of these first few days is that the utility of the usual Parliamentary debates is soon exhausted in conditions of emergency, that the Cabinet must do the work under general powers obtained by Parliament, and that members of Parliament should not resent or hamper the workings of the new con- stitutional system for which they asked at the election.
CUSTOS.
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