HOUSE OF LORDS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1114, 29 April 1911, Page 5

HOUSE OF LORDS.

PROPOSED REFORMS. SPEECH BY LORD SELBORNE, THE UNIONIST BILL, By TcJceraDh-Prcss Association-Copyright London, April 27. Lord Selborne, addressing the Liberal Union Club, said he would rather see tho House of Lords abolished than reduced to a sham. Tho advent of Socialism ivas impossible without civil war, "but wo are as near to a revolution as possible under Parliamentary form, a temporary, precarious majority in tho House of Commons threatening a great era of usurpation." Tho Marquis of Lansdowne, Leader of the Opposition in tho House of Lords, has given notico that he will introduce his House of Lords Reform Bill on May 8.. UNIONIST POLICY OUTLINED. THE REFERENDUM. Lord Selborne, who aeled as Unionist | leader in the House of Lords, on the Keferonduiii debate during Lord Lansdowne s illness, developed the views of tho Unionist leaders on reform of tho House nf Lords in a speech at Glasgow on March " Lord Selborne rejects the Veto Bill partly because he is certain that the.Radicals will in a year or two abolish the stisponsorv veto that is left to tho Lords on other 'than Money Bills and partly because they will never allow reform of the Lords. ~ ' He propounds the Unionist policy of moderate reform of tho House of Lords by a conjunction of two or more of the following methods:— 1. Indirect election (e.g., by county and town councils). 2. Selection bv the hereditary Peers. 3. Qualification by office (ex-Minis-ters, Governors, and the like). i. Nomination by tho Crown on the Prime Minister's advice. The different sections of the Unionist partv (one of wliicli objects to nuy' hereditary element)' must moot each other's views, Said Lord Selborne. Nay, further,- it must be a national, not a party settlement.

Speaking at Edinburgh on Mnrch 22, Lord Selbornc quoted extracts from a Par : liamcntary paper which showed the constant working of the Referendum in Die United States and in Switzerland, and ho mentioned its satisfactory results in Australia when any question relating to tho Constitution has been raked. If, therefore, he argued, the referendum is used constantly in the United States and in Switzerland, and enually successfully, if in a'more restricted manner, in Australia cud Natal, it is idle to say that it is inapplicable in any circumstances to the difficulties'existing in Britain. After statin.? that the Referendum was on additional safe-guard to the Constitution, Lord Selborno asked, When was it to be applied? Pour different proposals had been made:— . . (1) It "should only apply, in the case of Constitutional changes. (2) Tho Government of the day alone should have the power of applying it. (3) Either House by resolution should he ablo to invoke its aid. (1) A majority (fixed) of. say,, 200 members of cither Komv ilicld be allowed to petition the Crown f«r it. >'