ENGLISH POLITICAL HISTORY S i 3 



such a time-limit, the Opposition would have protracted the debates till Doomsday; 

 the Government had no option in the matter if they were to send the Bill up to the House 

 of Lords during that session, as they must, in order to obtain the benefit of the terms 

 of the Parliament Act. Even if the Home Rule Bill were to be passed through the 

 House of Commons by January, the Government programme was overloaded, for they 

 had announced their intention also to pass the Welsh Disestablishment Bill, the 

 Franchise Bill and other measures, before the session ended. 



Meanwhile, with Mr. Lloyd George's active encouragement, yet another political 

 issue had been made prominent during the autumn throughout the constituencies, in 

 the shape of an organised agitation for land-tenure reform and increased 

 taxation of land-owners, promoted more particularly by a section of the 

 Radical party who had long been advocates of the single-tax theory on 

 Henry George's lines (see E. B. xi, 747). The Budget of 1909, with its provisions for 

 effecting a complete valuation of the land, paved the way for such a movement, and 

 the land-reformers saw their opportunity now for pushing their views and preparing for 

 legislation. The unpopularity of the Insurance Act made it opportune moreover for 

 Mr. Lloyd George's section of the party to try to divert electioneering attention on the 

 Radical side to something more attractive, and at the summer and autumn by-elections 

 the new land campaign was made a leading feature by Radical candidates, notably by 

 Mr. Outhwaite at Hanley. Intense exasperation was created on the Conservative side, 

 representing as it did to so large an extent the landed interests of the country, by the 

 organisation of an unofficial Committee of Inquiry under Mr. Lloyd George's auspices, 

 with the authority of the Cabinet, in order to obtain evidence of various sorts of agrarian 

 grievances in furtherance of a Radical policy. It was objected that any such enquiry 

 for Government purposes should be by an impartial Royal Commission, which would 

 act publicly and responsibly, and not by an unofficial body acting surreptitiously and 

 in the interest of a partisan movement. Mr. Asquith, on behalf of the Government, 

 repudiated entirely any sympathy with the single-tax theory, and insisted that any 

 new land policy adopted by the Cabinet would be announced by them when the proper 

 time came. But it was clear that, so far as Mr. Lloyd George was concerned, the 

 next move forward in the direction of Radical social reform would be for " freeing the 

 land," and that active preparations were being made by him with this object. 



An important change in the Home Rule Bill was made when on October 3oth the 



discussion in Committee reached clause 8, concerning the composition of the Irish 



Senate. It was suddenly announced by Mr. Asquith that, while the 



The Z r ?~, c. proposed nomination of the first Senators by the Imperial Government 



posed Irish 111 i . i i > 1-1 



Senate. would be adhered to, the Government had decided to abandon the idea of 



their successors being nominated by the Irish Government. Instead of 

 this, the method would be substituted of election by the voters in the four Irish prov- 

 inces, taken as units, on a plan of proportional representation, each elector having a 

 "transferable " vote. 1 The term of office for Senators would be five years, and all 

 would retire together at the end of the fifth year so that the elections might then be 

 taken; casual vacancies being filled by substitutes sitting only for the unexpired term, 

 to be nominated if the vacancy is that of a nominated Senator, and elected if of an 

 elected. The next day (October 3ist) the revised clause was introduced and carried. 

 Mr. Asquith insisted that it would be an additional safeguard for the Unionist and 

 Protestant minority in Ireland, but Mr. Bonar Law regarded it as worthless for any 

 such purpose, and Mr. Healy frankly declared that in his opinion the Irish Unionists 

 would have been better off with the method of nomination. Mr. Redmond, while 

 accepting the Government's decision, expressed much the same view. The fact was 

 that the whole idea of a nominated Senate was distasteful to most of the Liberal party, 

 and it seemed a favourable opportunity for putting the experiment of proportional 

 representation, which had recently made many converts, into practice. The Govern- 

 ment refused however to adopt proportional representation for the Irish House of 

 *See E. B. xxu'i, 1150. 



