29 JULY 1911, Page 2

Lord Lansdowne's advice was not accepted by a section of

the Unionist peers, and on Saturday afternoon notice was issued that a dinner was to be given to Lord Halsbury to thank him for the part he bad taken in the Constitutional struggle and, further, to urge resistance to the point of forcing a creation of peers. Lord Selborne was to preside, and among the chief promoters of the dinner were Lord Salisbury, Mr. Austen Chamberlain, Mr. George Wyndham, Mr. F. E. Smith, and Lord Hugh CeciL The announcement of the dinner was followed by a vigorous canvass for adherents on both sides. On Friday it was announced that the supporters of Lord Lansdowne in the Lords had reached well beyond 200. The revolters are obliged by the narrowness of the support accorded them to keep their figures secret, but it is probably not much over fifty. What is in our opinion Lord Lansdowne's duty in circumstances so difficult and so sensational we have expressed fully elsewhere, and will not repeat here.