Mr. Asquith's main objection to using the Referendum to decide
deadlocks between the two Houses is that the Refer- endum would only be applied to Liberal legislation, and that the Lords would never add a Referendum clause to Unionist measures. Surely Mr. Asquith cannot be unaware that a per- fectly simple and practical plan for meeting this difficulty has been proposed. For example, the Referendum Committee of the British Constitution Association, of which Professor Dicey was a member, published last summer a Report which may be obtained at the offices of the Association, 23 Charing Cross, in which it was suggested, in order to meet Mr. Asquith's difficulty, that a poll of the people should take place "when not less than one-third of the Members of either Home of Parliament should petition that an Act be referred to the people before it came into operation." The truth is, the present Liberal Party fear the will of the people, and do not intend that a direct reference shall ever be made to them. If they allowed such reference they could no longer masquerade as The People. The Referendum would tear the mask from their faces.
