7 JANUARY 1911, Page 10

If Lord Midleton's figures are correct, and we see no

reason to think that he is in any way mistaken, we can hardly avoid his conclusion "that if the design of the Government were to reflect the opinion of the country in the Upper House rather than to free themselves from the shackles of a Second Chamber, they might have avoided the Constitutional crisis which they have gratuitously forced upon the country." In any case, Lord Midleton proves abundantly that the Lords' scheme would in no possible sense produce a Second Chamber packed with Unionists.