The House of Lords on Monday took the Report stage
of the Government of Ireland Bill. The two Courts of Appeal for the North and the South were retained on a division by 88 votes to 53. The House accepted a new clause, moved by Lord Midleton, providing that the Act should come into force, either in the North or in the South, if the majority of the members returned to Westminster for either province gave the Speaker their written acceptance of the new constitution. The province whose mem- bers did not accept the Act would be governed by a committee of the Privy Council. Within the next two years a Parliament might be summoned for the province in default, but if the majority of the members elected refused to accept the Act, the Parliament might be dissolved The Lord Chancellor refused to consider a renewed proposal to substitute an Irish "Senate " for the Council of Ireland, which was restored at this stage. " I have. never before heard of a non-representative body becom- ing the parent of a representative body," he said " you might
as well- purchase a mule and call it a stud." The Bill ryas read a third time on Tuesday. Lord Crewe and Lord Dunraven admitted that the North would work the scheme, and the Lord Chancellor pointed out that the South gained more by this Bill than by the Aet of 1914.
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