On Tuesday, when the debate was resumed, after several amendments
had been rejected, it was suggested by various speakers that the Government were determined, in order to facilitate the progress of the Bill, to accept no amendments of any kind. To this, however, Mr. Asquith replied that "the Government would very gladly welcome any improvement in the phraseology of the Bill, so long as it was consistent with its main purpose and principle." Mr. Griffith-Boscawen pro- posed that for Money Bills the voting upon the third reading in the House of Commons should be by ballot. This led to a lively discussion of the party system, which was denounced in strong language by Lord Hugh Cecil, who asked whether "an Assembly so influenced, so controlled by the Whips, was fitted for the gigantic powers they were to be entrusted with under the Parliament Bill." To this Mr. Churchill retorted that Lord Hugh Cecil's bad opinion of the House of Commons was limited to the time when there was a Liberal Government in power.
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