, Lord Rosebery presided at the dinner given to Mr.
Harold Cox by the British Constitution Association on Tuesday and delivered a remarkable speech. The party system was based on this, that while every man had a conscience, or was presumed to have a conscience, the party pooled his conscience, and when any individuality was not prepared to do this "he was expelled as grit hindering the oily working of the machine." He appealed to Lord Halsbnry to confirm his view that in former years, even up to 1885, there was so much independence inherent in Parliament that when a vote of want of confidence was brought against the Government you could hardly tell how it would go. This seemed a moment when people of reason and common- sense might combine in common-sense interests to do something for the welfare of the country instead of recording an indolent and silent vote at a General Election. Coming to the question of the Second Chamber, Lord Rosebery declared that if the veto of the House of Lords was to be abolished without reform, the Government proposals were doomed to absolute and irretrievable disaster at the hands of the country. He strongly supported the scheme of a Royal Com- mission to inquire into the question of Free-trade v. Tariff Reform, as one on which the silent voters in the country might concentrate.
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