Editing H. H. Asquith (section)

====1910–1911: second election and Parliament Act====
[[File:1911-New-Perrs-UK-Punch.jpg|thumb|300px|''Punch'' 1911 cartoon shows Asquith and Lloyd George preparing coronets for 500 new peers]]

On 11 November, Asquith asked King George to dissolve Parliament for [[December 1910 United Kingdom general election|another general election in December]], and on the 14th met again with the King and demanded assurances the monarch would create an adequate number of Liberal peers to carry the Parliament Bill. The King was slow to agree, and Asquith and his cabinet informed him they would resign if he did not make the commitment. Balfour had told King Edward that he would form a Conservative government if the Liberals left office but the new King did not know this. The King reluctantly gave in to Asquith's demand, writing in his diary that, "I disliked having to do this very much, but agreed that this was the only alternative to the Cabinet resigning, which at this moment would be disastrous".<ref>{{cite ODNB |last=Matthew |first=H. C. G. |title=George V (1865–1936) |year=2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33369 |access-date=28 July 2015 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/33369}}</ref>

Asquith dominated the short election campaign, focusing on the Lords' veto in calm speeches, compared by his biographer Stephen Koss to the "wild irresponsibility" of other major campaigners.{{sfn|Koss|p=125}} In a speech at [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]], he stated that the Liberals' purpose was to remove the obstruction, not establish an ideal upper house, "I have always got to deal—the country has got to deal—with things here and now. We need an instrument [of constitutional change] that can be set to work at once, which will get rid of deadlocks, and give us the fair and even chance in legislation to which we are entitled, and which is all that we demand."{{sfn|Spender & Asquith|pp=299–300}}

[[File:Passing of the Parliament Bill, 1911 - Project Gutenberg eText 19609.jpg|thumb|left|Samuel Begg's depiction of the passing of the Parliament Bill in the House of Lords, 1911]]

The election resulted in little change to the party strengths (the Liberal and Conservative parties were exactly equal in size; by 1914 the Conservative Party would actually be larger owing to by-election victories). Nevertheless, Asquith remained in [[10 Downing Street|Number Ten]], with a large majority in the Commons on the issue of the House of Lords. The Parliament Bill again passed the House of Commons in April 1911, and was heavily amended in the Lords. Asquith advised King George that the monarch would be called upon to create the peers, and the King agreed, asking that his pledge be made public, and that the Lords be allowed to reconsider their opposition. Once it was, there was a raging internal debate within the Conservatives on whether to give in, or to continue to vote no even when outnumbered by hundreds of newly created peers. After lengthy debate, on 10 August 1911 the Lords voted narrowly not to insist on their amendments, with many Conservative peers abstaining and a few voting in favour of the government; the bill was passed into law.{{sfn|Jenkins|pp=222–230}}

According to Jenkins, although Asquith had at times moved slowly during the crisis, "on the whole, Asquith's slow moulding of events had amounted to a masterly display of political nerve and patient determination. Compared with [the Conservatives], his leadership was outstanding."{{sfn|Jenkins|p=231}} Churchill wrote to Asquith after the second 1910 election, "your leadership was the main and conspicuous feature of the whole fight".{{sfn|Koss|p=125}} Matthew, in his article on Asquith, found that, "the episode was the zenith of Asquith's prime ministerial career. In the British Liberal tradition, he patched rather than reformulated the constitution."<ref name="dnb"/>