THE REFERENDUM BILL.
IT appears that there are still plenty of people who " cannot see how it would be possible to hold a Referendum in this country." Perhaps the best way to show them that there are no such terrible practical difficulties or even impossibilities as they inmagir►e is to print the text of what wss called Lord Balfour of Burleigh's Bill. That Bill wit,. introduced into the House of Lords, discussed and read a second lime in 1911. Though the Bill bad strong opponents, no one ventured to say it could not work.
It may interest our readers to know that tl►e Bill was designed, and the expenses of its production paid, by the Spectator. The work of putting the Bill into proper form and making it " water-tight " was most ably carried out by a well-known Parliamentary drafts- man, Mr. Pember, now Warden of All Souls, Oxford. When the draft Bill was finished, Lord Balfour of Burleigh most kindly undertook to introduce it into the Lords. He first, however, went through it clause by clause with me and the draftsman, and made several important improvements. The Bill, as well as the principle of the Referendum, received his whole-hearted support, and his exposition of the measure in introducing it was a masterpiece of clear and wise dialectic.
J. ST. L. S.
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