THE LORDS AND THE PARLIAMENT BILL. [To THE EDITOR OF
THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In tendering advice to the House of Lords with regard to the passage or rejection of the Parliament Bill you say that the Bill will have to pass that House either by consent or by compulsion on the creation of five hundred new peers. But surely you have overlooked another alternative. If the House can be induced so far to play into the hands of the Government, either by rejecting the Bill or amending it, the new peers will be created, but is it certain that when this is done the Bill will be reintroduced and pressed forward ? I doubt it. There will be no need for such a Bill. The time wasted in forcing it through the Commons and then through the Lords can be devoted to the passage of the Home Rule Bill and other equally iniquitous measures before the country has an opportunity of pronouncing upon them. Also, should a Unionist Government ever again be returned to power, the opposition in the Lords will be able to reject any and every Bill sent up to them by the House of Commons, which they would not be able to do if the Parliament Act were in force. Thus all reform of the House of Lords and the introduction of the Referendum would be impossible for very many years to come. Of course, the Government want the Bill rejected, and it remains to be seen whether the Lords will again fall into the trap so obviously laid for them.—I am, Sir, &c.,
W. N.
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