e of Lords would mean the claim of the House of Lords--that is,
the claim of a non-elective and unrepresentative Chamber--to make and
to unmake Governments; and a recognition of that claim by the country
would unquestionably mean that the House of Lords would become the
main source and origin of all political power under the Crown. Now
that is a great quarrel; that is a quarrel on which we had hoped, on
which we had been taught, that the sword had been sheathed
victoriously for ever. And that is the issue that is before us now. We
do not intend to soften it in any way. The responsibility for the
consequences must rest with the aggressor who first violates the
constitutional tradition of our land.

The Budget is through Committee. We have had not merely an exhaustive
but an exhausting discussion. I am told by ingenious calculators in
the newspapers that over six hundred hours, from some of which I
confess I have been absent, of debate have been accorded to the
Committee stage. No guillotine closure has been applied. Full, free,
unfettered debate has been accorded--has been accorded with a
patience and with a generosity unprecedented in Parliamentary annals,
and which in effect has left a minority not merely satisfied in all
the conditions of reasonable debate, but unable even on grounds of the
most meticulous partisanship to complain that the fullest opportunity
has not been accorded to them. In all this long process of six hundred
hours and upwards we have shown ourselves willing to make concessions.
They are boasting to-day that they, forsooth, are in part the authors
of the Budget. Every effort has been made to meet honest and outspoken
difference; every effort has been made to gather for this Budget--the
people's Budget, as they know full well it is--the greatest measure of
support not only among the labouring classes, but among all classes in
our vast and complicated community.

It has been a terrible strain. Lord Rosebery the other day at Glasgow
paid his tribute to the gallant band who had fought in opposition to
the Budget. Had he no word for his old friends? Had he no word for
those who were once proud to follow him, and who now use in regard to
him only the language of regret? Had he no word for that other
gallant band, twice as numerous, often three times as numerous, as the
Tory Opposition, who have sat through all these months--fine speakers
silent through self-suppression for the cause, wealthy men sitting