Friday, May 2nd, in the House of Commons, when the
Second Reading of Mr. A. Rendall's Proportional Repre- sentation Bill was taken, had much more than the interest of an ordinary Private Member's day. The debate was, not incidentally but chiefly, a trial of strength between the Government and the Liberal Party. For weeks the Liberals, as we all know, have been complain- ing of their treatment by Labour ; they are snubbed in the House of Commons, just as though they did not hold powers of life and death over the Government ! And in the constituencies Labour tries to hunt Liberal candidates off the field. Accordingly last week the Liberal Party, in solemn conclave, thought out a policy for bringing so graceless a Government to its senses. The plan deliberately adopted, though one would have expected deliberation to produce a more intelligent scheme, was to make Mr. Rendall's Proportional Repre- sentation Bill a test case. It was to throw the Liberal shield over the Bill and to dare the Government to injure it. If the Government dared in spite of this awful threat, war was to be declared.
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