Wednesday's Times contains a letter from Mr. Arthur Cohen, the
well-known King's Counsel, in which he draws attention to a very curious result of the preamble to the Veto Bill. In his view, the preamble implies that the Parliament Bill may only apply or be brought into operation as long as the House of Lords remains in its unreformed condition, and that if a Second Chamber be reconstituted on a satisfactory basis the provisions of the Bill, or some of them, may have to be repealed or modified. He draws from these premisses the following conclusions. "First, that the House of Lords should pass the Parliament Bill with a reservation that if, say, within two years a measure shall have been passed for the reform of the Housaof Lords or the reconstitution of a Second Chamber, it shall then be determined whether the Parliament Bill shall or shall not come into force in its present or some modified form. Secondly, that the question of the constitution of the Second Chamber should be at once taken in hand, either by a Conference between certain leading members of both parties, or by a joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament, or in some other manner." The suggestion—which was forestalled by a letter signed "A. L. R" in our issue of the 24th ult.—is a very interesting one, and may prove fruitful if the Government, as we trust may be the case, are willing to approach the problem of the House of Lords with a view to a reasonable compromise.
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