get on April 28, 1910,
exactly one year after its introduction into the House of Commons.
They did not make any fuss about it, because, as I shall show, they had
other things to think of. I remember the day on which the bill became
law in the House of Lords. There were very few peers present. Several
of the members of the House of Commons walked across from the Commons
to witness the culmination of their effort. Among them was Lloyd
George. He came in under the gallery, sprucely dressed in a morning
coat, his long hair brushed back from his forehead and above his ears
with a neatness which was not observable in his moments of excitement.
To-day he had no work to do: one job was finished and he was only on
the threshold of another. As he stood at the bar he looked over the
members of the House of Lords with a grave and benignant expression
which reminded one of a fond father regarding erring children. I
thought of the studious expression which usually characterized the face
of that daredevil boy down at Llanystumdwy all those years ago. I am
quite sure that the peers who observed him surveying them did not think
he was benignant. If I am any judge of feelings, they looked upon him,
as he stood there at the bar, as a particularly malignant type of
viper. With a genial smile Lloyd George exchanged a chatty word or two
with an M. P. at his side. No one would have guessed that there was
bitterness in his soul at this assembly or that with grim purpose he
was even now marking out the destruction of their powers.

It is the fashion in the House of Lords to give the King's consent to
legislation by proxy. The consent, moreover, is given now, as for many
hundreds of years past, not in the English language, but in the
language of the old Norman-French conqueror of nearly a thousand years
ago. A bewigged clerk read out in resonant tones the title of the bill
and from another official there came the answer of the King, "Le Roy le
veult" ("The King wills it"). The Budget of 1909 had become part of
the law of the United Kingdom. Lloyd George, still chatting cheerfully
with a fellow-member of the House of Commons, walked back to the Lower
Chamber.

If any of the Lords thought that the threats used against them in the
course of the election meant nothing and were only a kind of bluster to
get the Budget passed, they were grievously mistaken. It must have
been hard for them to realize that Lloyd George meant all the
pr