Lord Clarendon deprecated in advance any suspicion that he wanted
to embarrass the Government in face of the approaching General Election, and he emphasized the absence from his scheme of any idea of repealing the Parliament Act, though there were parts of that Act which might be altered later. Lord Buckmaster con- gratulated Lord Clarendon on the care and skill of his drafting, and expressed his particular pleasure at the refusal to interfere with the Parliament Act. Lord Parmoor, on behalf of the Labour Party, opposed the scheme without reserve. He can always be relied upon to see a nigger in every fence and, in spite of Lord Clarendon's elaborate professions to the contrary, he saw: in the Bill nothing but an attempt to put up an effective barrier against Socialistic legislation by depriving the Crown of the prerogative of specially creating Peers.
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