ords since the
Liberals came into power in 1906, and the crisis came when the Budget was
rejected in 1909. In June, 1907, the following resolution was passed by the
House of Commons by 432 to 147 votes: "That in order to give effect to the
will of the people, as expressed by their elected representatives, it is
necessary that the power of the other House to alter or reject Bills passed
by this House should be so restricted by law as to secure that within the
limits of a single Parliament the final decision of the Commons shall
prevail." This resolution was embodied in the Parliament Bill of 1911.
Between 1907 and 1911 came (1) the rejection of the Budget, November, 1909;
(2) the General Election of January, 1910, and the return of a majority of
124 (Liberal, Labour, and Irish Nationalist) in support of the Government;
(3) the passing of resolutions (majority, 105) for limiting the Veto of the
Lords; (4) the failure of a joint Conference between leading Liberals and
Conservatives on the Veto question, followed by (5) the General Election of
December, 1910, and the return of the Liberals with a united majority of
126.

The Parliament Bill declared that every Money Bill sent up by the Commons,
if not passed unamended by the Lords within a month, should receive the
Royal assent and become an Act of Parliament notwithstanding, and that
every Bill sent up for three successive sessions shall in the third session
become an Act of Parliament without the assent of the Lords.

The Lords passed this Bill with amendments which the Commons refused to
accept, and the Parliament Bill was returned to the Lords in August. But,
as in 1832, the Prime Minister announced that he had received guarantees
from the Crown that peers should be created to secure the passage of the
Bill if it was again rejected; and to avoid the making of some three or
four hundred Liberal peers, Lord Lansdowne--following the example of the
Duke of Wellington--advised the Conservatives in the House of Lords to
refrain from opposition. The result of this abstention was that the Lords'
amendments were not persisted in, and the Bill passed the Lords on August
10th, 1911, by 131 to 114 votes.

By this Parliament Act the Lords' veto is now strictly limited. The Lords
may reject a Bill for two sessions, but if the Commons persist, then the
Bill passes into law, whether the Lords approve or disapprove.

The real grievance against the House of Lords, from the democratic