Thus, we have all the data before its by which
to predict the course of politics during the next Session. It is obvious that the Government must go out and that Labour must go in. It seems difficult to 'resist Mr. Asquith's conclusion that Mr. MacDonald will, in turn, be defeated. Then comes the crux : Will` events follow Mr. Asquith's smooth road to Liberal preponderance, or will they take other and less easy paths ? At any rate, it is certainly idle to pretend, as the Daily Herald does, that Mr. Asquith was merely making a lawyer's point on the right of dissolution. Mr. Asquith's consti- tutional doctrine is unquestionably sound. The Herald remarks that Mr. Asquith " has laboriously built up a theory that Labour will take office merely to dissolve Parliament at the first opportunity : that is certainly not our idea of Labour's intentions." But what other intentions Labour can have, if and when it has been defeated by a Liberal and Conservative vote, it is difficult to see, unless it is willing that the Liberals should take office without a struggle.
