Turning to the Referendum, Mr. Balfour declared his con- viction
that it was the proper and only method of settling differences on great and vital questions between the two Houses. Mr. Balfour subjected Sir Edward Grey's scheme of an elective Second Chamber to a damaging criticism. A wholly elective Second Chamber would inevitably tend to im- pair the power, authority, and dignity of the First Chamber. Sir Edward Grey had declared that the introduction of the Referendum would reduce the House of Commons to the condition of clerks registering the decrees of the electorate. Per contra, Mr. Balfour contended that the tendency of the existing system was to reduce the House of Commons to "a body of clerks registering the decrees not of the electors but of the Government in power, and, what is still more serious, of the parties who by the grouping of political forces in the House have a control of the Administration."
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