Professor Naville sums up by pronouncing the Referendum to be
the strongest safeguard against a despotic majority.—In Switzerland there is a Radical majority in both Chambers.— So far from always endorsing the views of the Chambers, the Referendum may go against them even when they are unanimous, as happened in the case of the law of insurance against illness. Again, each vote has the same value. There are no large and small constituencies. " The Irish vote would weigh only in proportion to its number, and: would not have the extraordinary and undemocratic privilege which it has in the election of its Members." In this context we may be allowed to recall the interest- ing fact, mentioned in the Times of the 12th ult., that in a speech delivered in the Town Hall, Birmingham, on May 12th, 1904, Mr. Chamberlain expressed his regret that there was no machinery for a direct appeal to the people at large, and went on to say :—" I wish we in this country could take to-morrow a Referendum, a plebiscite, a vote of the people of this country, as to whether or not they would have the change in our fiscal system which I have proposed to you."
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