Mr. Balfour, who, we are glad to note, has recovered
from his cold, put the case for the Lords with very great ability.
As is well known, he is in a very real sense " a House of Commons man," but it was clear that he felt no misgivings as to any usurpation of the rights of the Lower House, and was not in the least embarrassed in meeting Mr. Asquith's points. Had the Lords, in timing that the constituencies must be consulted, gone beytmd the functions which ought to be left to a Second Chamber, hoievei rarely they were exercised? That was the real point which the country would have to determine. When the Second Chamber, in the exercise of its undoubted Constitutional rights, Bays : " Here has arisen one of those rare cases in which the people of this country alone can decide whether they will go upon this new path or whether they will not," were we to be told : " Let us take care that the tyranny of no future House of Commons shall in any circum- stances be interfered with even by the most Constitutional, the most moderate action of the Second Chanther " ?
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