ABSTRACT
The continuing divisions throughout 1910 in the ranks of the Unionist party left it in no position to face the important issues which the New Year brought forth. Though 1910 had seen two General Elections, there was a widespread realisation that the climax of political activity lay in the future. By the summer, Austen Chamberlain was ready to make his position clear on what had become the burning political issue of the day: should the Unionist peers allow the bill to pass on to the statute book and thus contribute to their own political emasculation. Certainly, the belief that he was putting the interests of the party before his own political ambition was an important factor which should not be ignored. There was no escaping that Chamberlain was ‘bitterly disappointed and very depressed’. His ‘dearest political hopes and personal affections [had] received from fate a cruel blow’.
