A great part of Sir William Harcourt's speech was, how-
ever, an attempt to make a great deal of the supposed wish of the Government in the Procedure Committee to give the House of Lords new advantages over the House of Commons. We have no belief at all that any such attempt was made, and entirely accept the view that the notion of giving the Lords new constitutional advantages over the House of Com. I1101113 was as far from Mr. Balfour's mind as it was from Lord Hartington's or Mr. Chamberlain's. Indeed, if it had been intended, Mr. Balfour would never have placed on record his belief that such a power, if used by the House of Lords, would be " nugatory." The Lords would be too happy to hold their own, and are certainly not thinking of such madness as encroaching on the privileges of the House of Commons. What Sir William Harcourt did not and would not attempt to explain, was the uncompromising resistance offered by himself and his friends to the enlargement of the legislative oppor- tunities of the House of Commons, by the majority of the Procedure Committee.
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