We were told at the beginning of the war that
there was to be no controversial legislation till it was over.
That engagement was broken; no one protested. A vitally important
transaction was removed from the purview of Parliament to a secret
conference; no one protested. If we suggested that the House of
Commons was morally and constitutionally dead, and that it ought
to renew its life by an appeal to the constituencies before it
enforced a revolution, we were told that it was impossible to hold
a General Election with the soldiers all out of the country; but
now it seems that this is to be the next step, and no one protests
against it.
But these may be dismissed as constitutional pedantries. So be
it. The Whigs, who made the Constitution, may be pardoned if they
have a sneaking regard for their handiwork. Much more astonishing
is the fact that no resistance was offered on behalf of wealth
and privilege by the classes who have most of both to lose. The
men of L100,000 a year--not numerous, according to the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, but influential--have been as meekly acquiescent
as clerks or curates. Men who own half a county have smiled on
an Act which will destroy territorial domination.
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