Some people would prefer the Second Ballot, in spite of
all the trouble and expense, to the Alternative Vote -on the ground that nobody really knows what his second
preference ought to be until he has seen the results of the first ballot. It has been predicted that if the Electoral Reform Bill reaches the House of Lords the Lords will vote strongly against the Alternative Vote or may insert in the Bill Proportional Representation— which, of course, is what the Liberals really want. The Liberals would then be faced by such a pretty problem as was contained in that once fashionable question " The Lady or the Tiger? " The Lords would not neces- sarily be behaving Puckishly in doing that, though assuredly it would be very entertaining to see whether the Liberals would vote for their true ambition at the cost of bringing their understanding with the Govern- ment to disaster. The Lords might quite seriously say that, being puzzled by the whole question of electoral reform, they thought that the best course was to test
opinion. * * * *
