Provided that this provision shall not take effect unless two years have elapsed between the date of the second reading in the first of those sessions of the Bill in the House of Commons and the date on which it passes the House of Commons in the third of those sessions.

(2) When a Bill is presented to His Majesty for assent in pursuance of the provisions of this section, there shall be endorsed on the Bill the certificate of the Speaker of the House of Commons signed by him that the provisions of this section have been duly complied with.

(3) A Bill shall be deemed to be rejected by the House of Lords if it is not passed by the House of Lords either without amendment or with such amendments only as may be agreed to by both Houses.

(4) A Bill shall be deemed to be the same Bill as a former Bill sent up to the House of Lords in the preceding session if, when it is sent up to the House of Lords, it is identical with the former Bill or contains only such alterations as are certified by the Speaker of the House of Commons to be necessary owing to the time which has elapsed since the date of the former Bill, or to represent any amendments which have been made by the House of Lords in the former Bill in the preceding session, and any amendments which are certified by the Speaker to have been made by the House of Lords in the third session and agreed to by the House of Commons shall be inserted in the Bill as presented for Royal Assent in pursuance of this section:

Provided that the House of Commons may, if they think fit, on the passage of such a Bill through the House in the second or third session, suggest any further amendments without inserting the amendments in the Bill, and any such suggested amendments shall be considered by the House of Lords, and, if agreed to by that House, shall be treated as amendments made by the House of Lords and agreed to by the House of Commons; but the exercise of this power by the House of Commons shall not affect the operation of this section in the event of the Bill being rejected by the House of Lords.

3. Certificate of Speaker

Any certificate of the Speaker of the House of Commons given under this Act shall be conclusive for all purposes, and shall not be questioned in any court of law.

4. Enacting Words

(1) In every Bill presented to His Majesty under the preceding provisions of this Act, the words of enactment shall be as follows, that is to say:

Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, in accordance with the provisions of the Parliament Act, 1911, and by authority of the same, as follows.

(2) Any alteration of a Bill necessary to give effect to this section shall not be deemed to be an amendment of the Bill.

5. Provisional Order Bills Excluded

In this Act the expression Public Bill" does not include any Bill for confirming a Provisional Order.

6. Saving Clause

Nothing in this Act shall diminish or qualify the existing rights and privileges of the House of Commons.

7. Duration of Parliament

Five years shall be substituted for seven years as the time fixed for the maximum duration of Parliament under the Septennial Act, 1715.1

8. Title

This Act may be cited as the Parliament Act, 1911.

11 Geo. 1, stat. 2, ch. 38.

CHAPTER X

NATIONAL INSURANCE

[Since the Liberal Government came into power in 1906, they had promoted, as has been seen, a large number of social reforms, such as the protection of the legal rights of labourers and trade unions, assurance of child welfare, regulation of sweated labour, establishment of labour exchanges, old age pensions, housing and town planning schemes and almost revolutionary tax arrangements. Their efforts, interrupted and possibly imperilled for a while in 1910 on account of the two General Elections and the accompanying struggle to reduce the political power of the House of Lords, were put forth again in 1911 to secure the passage of what is perhaps the most important measure of social betterment ever introduced in the British Parliament -"an Act to provide for insurance against loss of life and for the prevention and cure of sickness and for insurance against unemployment."

In the German Empire, a system of national compulsory insurance of workingmen against sickness and unemployment had been in successful operation for many years, but despite considerable agitation and many promises, similar action in Great Britain had been long delayed. However, in the course of the debate in 1906 on the Workmen's Compensation Bill, several speakers, notably Sir Charles Dilke,' urged the fundamental character of such an insurance. Again, the discussion on old age pensions served in the main to support the contention that insurance was a natural corollary to pensions. And in outlining the Government's plans for the establishment of labour exchanges, Mr. Winston Churchill 1 Cf. supra, p. 38. 2 Cf. supra, p. 142.

declared that that would constitute a beginning in the preparation and perfecting of a program for general state insurance.

From 1908 to 1911 various officials and committees of Government departments worked on the problem, which proved most knotty and intricate. At length, on May 4, 1911, Mr. David Lloyd George, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, brought in the Bill, containing eighty-seven clauses and nine schedules; and, in a remarkably clear speech (Extract 84), sketched its purpose and explained its chief provisions. The Chancellor's appeal was well received by the leaders of the other parties. Mr. Austen Chamberlain, of the Opposition, would have preferred to deal separately with insurance against sickness and that against unemployment, but expressed general sympathy with the objects. Mr. John Redmond, leader of the Irish Nationalists, assured the Government of his support (Extract 85); and the Labour Members, while expressing some fear as to the details of the measure, were naturally favourable.

The Bill came up for second reading in the Commons on May 24. It had been much discussed in the interval, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer had invited and encouraged criticisms. Though the general public reception appeared favourable, misgivings were expressed by some employers and some representatives of the friendly, or benefit, societies. The most active criticism came from the medical profession and its organisation. They held that they would lose practice among the lower middle and artisan classes, and that the fees fixed by the Bill for medical attendance upon the insured were altogether too low. Mr. Sydney Buxton, President of the Board of Trade, in moving second reading, explained the general principles of the Bill and answered several criticisms (Extract 86). Speaking for the official Opposition, Mr. H. W. Forster complained about the coupling of sickness and unemployment in one measure, the creation of a debt of £63,000,000 to start the scheme, the increased contribution from employers where wages

1 Cf. supra, p. 200.

were low, and the possible effect upon the doctors and friendly societies; the Opposition hoped, however, that the second reading would be passed without a single dissentient vote. The Nationalists and the Labour party again welcomed the Bill, though with considerable reserve as to certain points. After a number of other speeches, Mr. Rufus Isaacs, the Attorney-General, cited several important lessons that might be drawn from German experience along similar lines (Extract 87).

In the course of the debate on second reading, Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, the leader of the Labour party, pointed out that the Insurance Bill marked a fundamental change in public opinion, both larger parties now accepting the principle that social welfare was the care of the state - social affairs the main business of politics (Extract 88). His criticisms suggested the desire of his party for alternative provisions to certain ones in the Government Bill.

Committee stage was begun on July 5 and continued intermittently into November. Several hundreds of amendments were adopted, the chief of which may be roughly outlined as follows:1 Sick pay (10s. per week for men, 7s. 6d. for women) was to continue for twenty-six weeks instead of thirteen. Maternity benefit was extended to the wife of an insured person even if she herself was an insured person. Sanatorium for consumption might be extended to the dependants of the insured consumptive. Married women might now come in during their husband's lifetime as voluntary contributors with reduced payments, receiving sickness and disablement benefit. Soldiers, sailors and other naval men, and mercantile seamen, might come in under special provisions; so might fishermen co-partners under regulations to be made by the Commissioners according to varying local customs. Where it was the custom for the employer to pay full wages during sickness the contributions of both employers and employed might be reduced

1 Cf. The Annual Register, 1911, p. 281. The same volume gives, in various places, details of the debate, whose incorporation in this work space precludes.