No comment is necessary on either of these manifestoes except
to state our belief that the extremists will find themselves woefully mistaken if they think the country will be pleased by having another General Election forced upon it, as the Freeman's Journal airily remarks, " in six weeks, or conceivably about a month." It may be true that the House of Lords as at present constituted has not got the confidence of the nation, or at any rate that the nation is convinced that reform of the Lords is necessary. If, however, an election is to take place under conditions which will mean that the country is asked to choose between reform of the Lords, with the consequent establishment of a reasonably constituted Second Chamber, and the abolition of the veto—that is, single- Chamber government—we have little or no doubt as to which way the verdict will go. The Unionist Party will fight at an advantage, assuming, as of course we do assume, that Mr. Balfour and the Unionist leaders will meet the situation as it ought to be met, and will place before the country a well-considered scheme of reform of the House of Lords.
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