In the House of Lords on Tuesday Lord Balfour of
Burleigh moved the second reading of his Reference to the People Bill. He explained the principal provisions of the Bill in a speech of the greatest clarity and effectiveness. On the one hand it provided a means for settling differences between the two Houses, and on the other hand it gave power to the minority in the Lower House to insist upon the people being consulted• upon measures to which both Houses had agreed. The nation would thus be the arbiter of its own destinies, which was the object and destination of the whole of our representative system. While he did not suggest that his proposal could not be improved in details, Lord Balfour maintained; that its underlying idea was worth discussing in a concrete term. The Government's view was given by Lord Morley in a cautious and almost timid speech. He described the Bill as being more revolutionary in its nature than the Parliament Bill or Lord Lansdowne's projected Reform Bill, and declared of its principle that " it weakens the House of Commons, it weakens the House of Lords, it does a great deal to abolish the representative system, it wholly transforms our Parliamentary system, and it affects our Cabinet system.,"
