Among the speakers on Wednesday night was Lord Hugh Cecil,
who declared that the effect of party government would be to make the second and third discussions of a measure nothing but an empty form. "There is no greater hypocrisy than to represent the House of Commons as a free deliberative assembly." Lord Hugh Cecil went on to outline a scheme for the reform of the House of Lords. He suggested that the Chamber should consist of four hundred persons nominated by the King on the advice of his Ministers, and that of these three hundred and fiftyshouldbeselected from the hereditary Peerage for life, while the remaining fifty should be "distinguished persons of various kinds." By this means the balance of parties in the Upper House would be on the whole evenly maintained, for as vacancies occurred they would be filled by members of the party in power. After speeches from Mr. Birrell and Mr. Wyndham, Mr. Ramsay Macdonald expressed his doubts as to whether a Second Chamber could be devised which should protect the country from a Cabinet tyranny ; he believed, on the contrary, that a responsible single Chamber would make for honesty of administration.
