LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THZ " SPECTATOR.")
SIE,-It is indeed surprising that the Spectator should have forgotten the Referendum in this connexion, but you certainly seem to do so when you say that the Opposition have but one weapon with which to fight the Parliament Bill,—namely, the power to force the Government to create Peers. Before it comes to that, of course, the Bill must be exhaustively dis- cussed in both Houses, and one need not yet altogether despair of a settlement emerging as a result of that discussion. But failing such a settlement, it would still be open to the Lords—nay, the Unionist Party are pledged—to pass the Bill subject to a _Referendum. Of course the Government maintain that the General Election has been fought on this single issue and practically amounted to a Referendum. That is a matter of opinion, not of fact ; we all know voters who thought Free- trade, or the existence of the Government on general grounds, the main issue,—how many, it is impossible to say. The question of fact can only be tested by an appeal to the people on the isolated issue. Is it conceivable that the King should be advised to create the five hundred Peers for the sole purpose of preventing such an appeal P-1 am, Sir, &c.,
MONTELGLE.
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