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THE HOUSE OF LORDS AND THE BUDGET,
(Daily Press, August 14.) The strong opposition to Mr. LLOYD GEORGE'S Budget proposals foreshadows an early dissolution of Parliament. If the Finance Bill, when it gets to the House of Lords, is not promptly rejected in toto, it can be anticipated with certainty thatit will be mutilated beyond recognition. In this connection a very interesting poli- tical controversy will arise as to the right of the House of Lords to amend reject a Finance Bill. The House of Lords never has rejected a Finance Bill, and for
or
some centuries has not amended a financial measure, though one or two unsuccessful to do so have been male by altempts venturesome Peers. Eminent authorities on constitutional practice lay down that the Lords have no right to amend a Finance Bill embodying the Budget proposals; they must either accept or reject the Bill in its eutirety. But Lord LANSDOWNE, the Leader
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
minces
on constitutional practice laying it down that, though the House of Lords has the right to reject a Finance Bill or other measure for the raising or expenditure of money, it may not amend it. We gather from Lord LANSDOWNE's recent speech on the subject that His Lordship is able to cite authorities to the contrary, but prefers t, rely on the common sense view of the matter. However, whether the House of Lords rejects the Bill in its entirely or " it, the action of the Government will be the Board of Trade as satisfactory authority for same, if we may accept the President of the
Speaking at Edinburgh last month, Mr. CHURCHILL emphatically declared that: "No amendment, excision, molifying or mutilating will be agreed to by us. We will stand no mincing, and unless Lord LANSDOWNE and his landlordly friends choose to eat their own mince up again, Parliament will be dissolved." Since that utterance the Government itself has been forced to recognise that excisions are need- ed, for a telegram a day or two ago inform- ed us that the strong opposition offered to
the statement.
entertainment as
[August 16, 1999.
Legal proceedings in Hongkong, though sometimes brightened by specimens of Oriental simplicity or cuteness, scarcely ever afford such Court, Dublin, last month, between the defendant was provided in the Rolls and the redoubtable Mr. T. M. Healy, M. P., one of the plaintiff's counsel, Mr. Healy, referring to a passage in defendant's affidavit, where he said he had resided for long periods in London, Dublin and Naples, and had been as far away as Australia, added the comment,
Perhaps you were at the South Pole." brought the crushing retort from the witness, No. I do not draw on a vulgar imagination." Later Mr. Healy asked, "Is that your explana- tion?" to which the witness replied "No, it is not an explanation. It is merely trying to bring my intelligence down to the level of yours." Couldn't we import a few Tim Healys?
"
This
The new harbour light on Signal Hill, Kow- the seafaring men. loon, does not seem to excite the enthusiasm of In fact, I have heard some scoff at it and declare that it is absolutely useless. They assert that it is not properly placed and that it is not of sufficient brilliancy. I am not a nautical man myself-though I once tried to sail a yacht from Ah King's to Kowloon Bay and fetched up at Blake Pier-but when enter-
of the criticisms I had heard. The light is I could not help being struck with the justness
not visible from any distance and the wisdom of erecting it in that situation is certainly open to comment.
of the Opposition in the House of Lords, one iuportaut clause of the Bill had induced ing the harbour the other evening from Lyeemun
intimated that the House of Lords will not
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because it is
evidently regards this as a fallacy, and be has quite recently publicly and plainly, proclaim that it has no responsibility for the Finance Bill, and that mixed up with the financial affairs of the nation we are obliged to swallow it whole or without mincing. In other words, the House of Lords means to assert its right to amend the Bill, and in the present circumstances they have abundant justification for such step. Lord RIDLEY, one of the most active members of the Upper House, said in a speech not long ago:-"The impression
a
that the House of Lords cannot touch finance is founded on a resolution of the House of Cormons passed centuries ago, but that was not a Bill passed through both branches of the Legislature." The resolu- tion to which Lord RIDLEY refers was passed in 1671. The Peers of that day reduced a duty imposed on sugar, and the Commons retaliated by passing a resolution to the effect "that in all aids given by the King to the Commons the rate or tax ought not to be altered by the Lords." This resclution was placed on the records of the House of Com- mons and no issue on it has ever been forced by the Lords. Lord. LANSDOWNE, however, is emphatically of opinion that for the House
of Lords to swallow the Finance Bill whole would not only be a mistaken, but an un. constitutional position. "It is unthink- able," he says, "either in the theory or the practice of a Constitution of any country with two Legislative Chambers, that it should be left to the absolute discretion of one of these Chambers to impose upon the nation any burden, however monstrous and intolerable, any taxation, however inequit. able its incidence, any new financial system, however subversive of Society."
One of the London newspapers recently quoted the preamble of the Bill as fully entitling the House of Lords to amend the Finance Bill. The words in the preamble pertinent to the point are these: "Be it enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assem- bled, and by the authority of the same." These words certainly give the House of Lords the right to withhold their conseat to the Bill; it is not so clear that they fully entitle the Lords to amend the Bill. Every Finance Bill for centuries has probably had the same preamble, and yet have the highest authorities
we
·
them to abandon it. The Bill is not likely, however, to be modified or ame ided in the House of Commons to such an extent as to make it acceptable to the House of Lords, and, therefore, if Mr. CHURCHILL, in the words we have quoted, expresses the views and intentions of the Cabinet, an early dissolution is inevitable.
RANDOM REFLECTIONS.
How remarkable! A whole week without boasting, and I suppose I'll be asked to “touch seeing the typhoon siguals! It looks like
wood.'
Probably the typhoon signals Were not brought out as there was no proper place to exhibit them this week owing to the Tamar being in dock. Of course other explanations may be forthcoming.
In Kowloon, I am told, there is an under current of dissatisfaction which occasionally finds expression in a growl about the absenco of typhoon signals visible from all parts of the peninsula. Those people fortunate enough to live in houses which command a view of the harbour have little cause for complaint, but there are not many such houses, and as the peninsula is fairly flat advantage might be taken of one or other of the few eminences to enlighten the residents of the proximity of typhoons.
Bathers know the jellyfish and usually dodge them, but the jellybugs, which have become almost as great a nuisance in our bathing areas, are not so easily avoided. This past week they have been unusually virulent, and exclamations from bathers have proclaimed their meeting with the little beggars. The result of the con- tact is a series of stings and prickles which are not easily allayed. I have no scientific knowl. edge on the subject of the doings of these submarines, but the explanation generally accepted is that the heavy rains, having disturbed the water, have brought them from the bottom to plague the swimmer and to give all sorts of sensations to the timid in the sea.
How far good comradeship will carry men in Hongkong WAS illustrated in the action mentioned at the Supreme Court on Friday. In this case the proprietor of a local hotel brought a claim against a boarder, but the man's chums rightly or wrongly decreed that the action should not be brought, and as they happened to be staying in the hotel also they by declaring they would leave if the claim were were able to secure their wishes being respected;
not dropped. Such a league against the land- lord is reminiscent of tactics in Ireland, where the blunderbuss is occasionally presented when the "dacent gintleman" calls for his rent.
Live and learn! Not until this last week did most of us know about the differences between can ice and plate ice, and the litigation just commenced in the Supreme Court has been responsible for shedding more enlightenment than legal proceedings usually do.
Weather talk usually suggests poverty of ideas, but such a harsh judgment might be suspended in my favour especially when there are so many extraordinary features to note. At Home there is scarcely any summer except in name; Iceland, whose appellation makes it difficult to associate it with heat, being actually warmer than London or Paris in June. In the East similar vagaries are taking place. People were dying from heat apoplexy in l'eking and Tientsin two weeks ago, and at the same time snow was falling on Fujiyama. What a queer place the world is after all!
*
*
readable extract from the Lancet, in which that I noticed in the D. P. the other day a very journal pointed out how insanitary drinking glasses were. When one gives the matter a little thought there certainly appears to be room for improvement. It is not in the interests of cleanliness that a glass of liquor should be handed by the serving person to the drinker with his fingers and thumb on the rim, on that portion of the glass which comes into contact with the drinker's lips, and it does not improve matters when the drinker does the same in order to raise the glass to his lips. It is pointed out that those who imbibe tea run less risk of con- tamination because they use cups which have handles (unless the boy has been unusually destructive), and as it seems advisable to have
drinking vessels with handles we could not do better perhaps than go back to the tankards— foaming tankards-out of which our forbears got
so much satisfaction and~ale.
RODERICK RANDOM.
Figures of the total foreign trade of the Philippines during the last year, a San Francisco paper says, show that the United States' share of it was pitifully small, this country having sold to the islands goods of a value of only $5,101,886, out of a total of $32,601,972. The principal Philippine imports are cotton goods, of which $9,000,000 worth were bought by the islands, only $1,000,00) coming from this country. Perhaps the preferential tariff status which the present Congress is giving to Ameri- can imports into the Archipelago will change this condition somewhat, but the fact remains that after ten years' possession of the 'hilippines wo have completely failed to dominate that market in competition with other countries.