DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49382#0160
92
CHAPTER TH.
searching investigation into the conditions of labour, especially in
dangerous and underpaid trades, and to have a Factory and Workshops
Act passed materially improving the conditions of the work-people.
He introduced the Welsh Disestablishment Bill in 1894, and came,
for the first time, in conflict with Mr. Lloyd George, who felt that the
proposals did not go far enough. That conflict did not, however,
prevent the two latter becoming allies and working together for
almost two decades.
When Mr. Asquith resigned office in 1895 he returned to the
practice of law in defiance of precedent, and felt no humiliation in
pleading before judges who erst while had been his subordinates.
Upon the resignation of Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman, Mr.
Asquith became the Prime Minister. As the result of the rejection
by the House of Lords of the Budget of 1909, containing Mr. Lloyd
George’s famous land clauses, a General Election took place, at which
the Liberal Party was returned with a majority of TOO.
A hot controversy followed regarding the demand from the
Sovereign for a guarantee for the creation of Peers to ensure the
passing of the Parliament Act. Tn the midst of this political turmoil
King Edward died, but his demise did not interfere with the placing
of that Act upon the Statute Book.
During the same session Mr. Asquith took an unprecedented
step. Following the resignation of Colonel Seeley, the War Minister,
in consequence of the threatened strike of officers at the Curragh
(Ireland) over Irish Home Rule, he himself assumed the vacant office.
When the war began in August, 1914, therefore, he was at the head
of the Empire’s fighting machinery. One of his first acts was to
secure Lord Kitchener’s consent to serve as Minister of War.
Persons who finally succeeded in hounding Mr. Asquith out of
office declared that his evenly balanced temperament became almost
perpetually poised as he grew older, and that his answer to all
questions was “wait and see.” Reticent by nature, even the best of
his friends often wished that he would make fuller disclosures—would
discuss matters on which he chose to preserve silence, That, coupled
CHAPTER TH.
searching investigation into the conditions of labour, especially in
dangerous and underpaid trades, and to have a Factory and Workshops
Act passed materially improving the conditions of the work-people.
He introduced the Welsh Disestablishment Bill in 1894, and came,
for the first time, in conflict with Mr. Lloyd George, who felt that the
proposals did not go far enough. That conflict did not, however,
prevent the two latter becoming allies and working together for
almost two decades.
When Mr. Asquith resigned office in 1895 he returned to the
practice of law in defiance of precedent, and felt no humiliation in
pleading before judges who erst while had been his subordinates.
Upon the resignation of Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman, Mr.
Asquith became the Prime Minister. As the result of the rejection
by the House of Lords of the Budget of 1909, containing Mr. Lloyd
George’s famous land clauses, a General Election took place, at which
the Liberal Party was returned with a majority of TOO.
A hot controversy followed regarding the demand from the
Sovereign for a guarantee for the creation of Peers to ensure the
passing of the Parliament Act. Tn the midst of this political turmoil
King Edward died, but his demise did not interfere with the placing
of that Act upon the Statute Book.
During the same session Mr. Asquith took an unprecedented
step. Following the resignation of Colonel Seeley, the War Minister,
in consequence of the threatened strike of officers at the Curragh
(Ireland) over Irish Home Rule, he himself assumed the vacant office.
When the war began in August, 1914, therefore, he was at the head
of the Empire’s fighting machinery. One of his first acts was to
secure Lord Kitchener’s consent to serve as Minister of War.
Persons who finally succeeded in hounding Mr. Asquith out of
office declared that his evenly balanced temperament became almost
perpetually poised as he grew older, and that his answer to all
questions was “wait and see.” Reticent by nature, even the best of
his friends often wished that he would make fuller disclosures—would
discuss matters on which he chose to preserve silence, That, coupled