To suppose that the machinery would be difficult to set
up is surely a mistake. All that would be necessary would be to add a Referendum clause to a Bill stating that it should not come into operation until it bad been voted on and approved by the people, and then directing that within six weeks after the Bill had received the Royal Assent writs should be issued to the returning officer in each Parliamentary constituency. Those writs would direct him to hold a poll of the people under the Ballot Act, and other Acts governing Parliamentary elections as far as applicable, and a ballot-paper would be presented to each elector asking him whether it was his will that the Bill " entitled, &c.," should or should not come into operation "on the let of January next." In view of all these facts, Lord Rosebery should, we think, have made a definite attempt to get the Lords to add a Referendum clause to the Old-Age Pensions Bill. Even had he failed he would, at any rate, have done something to popularise the notion of the Referendum.
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