Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/330

 by the Tsar. Campbell-Bannerman, who was present to welcome the conference, referred to the incident in the memorable words 'La duma est morte : vive la duma !' Speaking in the house (5 March 1906), he favoured the two-power naval standard, with the qualification that close alliances with the greatest naval powers might make its maintenance needless. His hopes of reducing armaments were not realised.

In the vacation of 1906 Lady Campbell-Bannerman died at Marienbad, and although the prime-minister's political energy seemed unimpaired during the following autumn session and at the opening of the new session, he never recovered the blow. The anxiety in which her ill-health had long involved him had intensified the strain of public life. But his sense of public duty was high. When parliament met on 12 Feb. 1907, he repeated his determination to bring the conflict with the lords to a decisive end. The king's speech contained the sentence : 'Serious differences affecting the working of our parliamentary system have arisen from unfortunate differences between the two houses. My ministers have this important subject under consideration with a view to a solution of the difficulty.' A final handling of the problem was, however, postponed. The government prepared to devote their strength to Ireland to 'measures for further associating the people of Ireland with the management of their domestic affairs.' These words were identical with those used in the former king's speech. The government's hope was to conciliate by a moderate policy those of their party who distrusted a thorough - going policy of home rule. The effort failed. A plan of creating a series of Irish councils was rejected by the Irish members, and was consequently dropped. The prime minister pointed with greater pride to a reduction of nearly 2,000,000l. on the navy estimates (5 March). On the eve of the Hague peace conference of May 1907 he contributed to the 'Nation' newspaper an article entitled 'The Hague Conference and the Limitation of Armaments' (Nation, 7 March 1907), in which he urged his favourite plea. But the pronouncement excited mistrust in Germany, and on 30 May the German chancellor, Prinz von Billow, announced that Germany would refuse to discuss at the conference the arrest of armaments.

The session of 1907 bore fruit in Mr. Haldane's army scheme, the Criminal Appeal Act, the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act, and the Small Holdings Act for England and Wales. Two government bills adopted by the commons, the land values (Scotland) bill and the small landholders (Scotland) bill, were rejected by the lords in August. Meanwhile, Campbell-Bannerman, after three days' debate, carried by 434 to 149 the motion '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' (26 June).

There was no autumn session, but Campbell-Bannerman was not free from public business. Speaking in Edinburgh (5 Oct.) he said that the dominant political fact of the day was that the government, though powerful in the House of Commons and in the country, lived on sufferance ; and he recapitulated the serious grievances of the commons against the lords. In November the German emperor and empress paid a state visit to King Edward VII, which required Campbell-Bannerman's constant attendance. He left Windsor early on 13 Nov. for a luncheon at the Guildhall in honour of their imperial majesties, and the same evening spoke at the Colston banquet at Bristol. An attack of heart failure took place in the night. Recovery seemed rapid. He presided at several meetings of the cabinet before the end of the month ; but acting on medical advice, he spent the next eight weeks at Biarritz (27 Nov. 1907 to 20 Jan. 1908).

On his return journey Campbell-Bannerman stayed a few days in Paris, and had interviews with the prime minister, M. Clemenceau, and M. Pichon, the French foreign minister. He was not in his place in parliament when the session opened on 29 Jan. In the king's speech an announcement of the re-introduction of the two Scottish bills rejected by the House of Lords was the only reminder of the constitutional struggle with the lords. A promise of old age pensions and of an Irish universities bill was the most important item in the government's programme. Campbell-Bannerman came to the house on 4 Feb. to move in vigorous language an address to the king on the assassination of King Carlos and the duke of Braganza, and to express sympathy with the royal family of Portugal. On 12 Feb. he moved the 'guillotine,' or an 'allocation