The House of Commons on Thureday, December 16th, con- sidered
the Lords' amendments to the Government of Ireland Bill. It accepted the Lords' proposal to establish Senates in both the Irish Parliaments, though Sir Edward Carson remarked that Ulster did not want a Senate. On the other hand, the House rejected the Lords' new scheme for constituting the Council of Ireland by election from the two Senates and the two Houses of Commons and reverted to the original plan, under which the lower Houses alone are to elect twenty Coun- cillors apiece. The term during which Irish members arc to be elected by "P. R." was again reduced from six years to three. The Independent Liberals, curiously enough, supported Lord Midleton's new clause, allowing the Sinn Fein members elected in 1918 to exercise a veto on the acceptance of the Act by Southern Ireland, but it was rejected by a large majority. The clause requiring a resolution of both Houses before the Act could come ihto force in the North or the South was also omitted.
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