2 DECEMBER 1911, Page 17

If this is the net situation, as we say, without

fear of con- tradiction, that it is, are we not right in declaring that the whole thing is an outrage ? In all these circumstance we say once more that the best way out of the tangle is for the Peers to add a Referendum clause. There is no difficulty about doing so. The machinery contained in Lord Balfour of Burleigh's Bill can be adapted with the greatest ease to form- ing a schedule to accompany the Referendum clause. The one thing that the House of Lords must not attempt to do in the two days thoughtfully and considerately allowed them by the Government for the Committee stage is to attempt to amend the Bill. To do that would make them responsible for

the greatest mass of legislative ineptitudes that has ever been seen in the history of Parliament.