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No doubt the Cabinet will threaten that if their hands

are thus forced they will abolish the hereditary principle alto- gether, and have a purely elective Second House. We can only say that such a threat is not likely to intimidate either the Lords or the Unionist Party. There are very few, if any, Peers—at any rate in the Unionist Party—who desire to occupy the miserable and humiliating position ascribed to them under the Government BilL A purely elective Second Chamber, which must be endowed with powers equal to those of the American. or, at the least, of the French, Senate, would provide a check upon the House of Commons which would be welcomed by the bulk of the Unionists.

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