Lord Salisbury, in a letter addressed to the Secretary of
the Cirencester Constitutional Club, published in Tues- day's papers, again puts forward in strong terms the Referendum view of the functions of the House of Lords. If the House of Commons were elected every year, it might be urged that their decisions were necessarily endorsed by the electors. "But to assume that a House which is elected for several years must necessarily be at all times voting in accordance with the views of the electors upon Bills which have not been referred to them, appears to me a very rash inference, unsupported by any argument of a practical kind." The letter appears to have caused great annoyance among the antagonists of the Lords ; but the principle on which it insists, is not one which is at all likely to annoy the democracy. It involves the most complete submission to the popular sovereignty, and merely demands that our laws shall be made in accordance with the will, the true will, and nothing but the will, of the people.
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