It is useless, however, to discuss any such scheme, for
the House of Commons will never bridle itself in this way. The best the House of Commons will let us have will be a reform of the House of Lords, and we venture to say that in this reformed House of Lords the hereditary element will be main- tained by the Commons in order that in the case of future friction they can always point to that element as an argument that the will of the popularly elected House must prevail. What the Liberal Party in the House of Commons would no doubt like is an entirely unreformed House in which the Peers would be shut up as in a gilded pen, but deprived of all power. Happily they will not be able to accomplish this sinister design. In effect the struggle before the Unionists and moderates is to secure as much reform of the House of Lords as will be allowed them. It is clear, however, that such reform cannot be accompanied by the abolition of the veto, which, it is impossible to repeat too often, is the equivalent to the creation of single-Chamber government. -
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