"If there is one thing more than another better established about the British Constitution it is this, that the Commons, and the Commons alone, have the complete control of supply and ways and means. And what our fathers established through centuries of struggles and of strife, even of bloodshed, we are not going to be traitors to. Who talks about altering and meddling with the Constitution? The Constitutional Party... As long as the Constitution gave rank and possession and power it was not to be interfered with. As long as it secured even their sports from intrusion, and made interference with them a crime; as long as the Constitution forced royalties and ground-rents and fees, premiums and fines, the black retinue of extraction; as long as it showered writs, and summonses, and injunctions, and distresses, and warrants to enforce them, then the Constitution was inviolate, it was sacred, it was something that was put in the same category as religion, that no man ought to touch, and something that the chivalry of the nation ought to range in defence of. But the moment the Constitution looks round, the moment the Constitution begins to discover that there are millions of people outside the park gates who need attention, then the Constitution is to be torn to pieces. Let them realize what they are doing. They are forcing revolution."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandBritish peersPoliticians from WalesPeople from Manchester
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Speech in Newcastle (9 October 1909), quoted in The Times (11 October 1909), p. 6
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Lloyd_George
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
David Lloyd George
1863 – 1945
britischer Politiker
461 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by David Lloyd George →
Related Quotes
"Mr. Chamberlain is right in so far as he says that things are not well in this country. We cannot feed the hungry wit…"
"As our fathers had freed our trade there was another work to accomplish. This was to free the land from the chains of…"
"Landlords have no nationality; their characteristics are cosmopolitan."
"Great Britain would spend her last guinea to keep a navy superior to that of the United States or any other power."
"I believe there is a new order coming for the people of this country. It is a quiet but certain revolution."
"I will not say but that I eyed the assembly in a spirit similar to that in which William the Conqueror eyed England o…"
"A free religion and a free people in a free land."
"Why had Wales made sacrifices in the face of unexampled difficulties and intimidation from squires and agents? It was…"
"[I believe in Oliver Cromwell] because he was a great fighting Dissenter. He was perhaps the first statesman to recog…"
"[The House of Lords] is the right hon. Gentleman's poodle. It fetches and carries for him. It barks for him. It bites…"