HOUSE OF LORDS REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1130, 18 May 1911, Page 5

HOUSE OF LORDS REFORM.

UNIONIST BILL DEBATED. MEASURE CRITICISED BY LIBERAL PEERS. RELIGIOUS REPRESENTATIVES By Telegraph—Press Association— Gopyrieht (lire May 18, 0.,") a.m.) London, May 17. Lord Lansdowne's Bill for reform of the House of Lords was further discussed in. the Upper House yesterday. Lor.t Lansdowne slid that though there were great difficulties in the way, ho did not despair of arranging lor tho representation in the House of Lords of other religious denominations besides Anglicans. Nothing was further from the thoughts of tho Opposition than that the Government should accept his Bill in exchange for the Lords accepting the Veto Bill. Lord Morlcy, Lord President of the Council, twitl-sd Lord Lansdowne with ruling out four hundred members of the Upper House as ineligible. Tho first essentials of any great scheme were stability and simplicity. Lord Lansdowno's Bill gave neither, and satisfied no one. What the Government wanted to know was tho relation of this Bill to tho Veto Bill. The first business of the Government was to carry the latter. The Duke of Devonshire, and Lords Selborne and Willoughby do Broke supported, aud Lord Brassey opposed, the Bill. Lord Carriugton, President of the Board of Agriculture, advocated the incorporation in the Bill of the principle of colonial representation. Lord Loreburu, Lord Chancellor, said he trusted Lord Lansdowne's fino tempor, but the Liberals were still at the mercy of tho present majority, and not until the Veto Bill was law would the Government be in a position to consider (ho reform proposals. Ho heartily hoped it woiild then be possible to come to an agreement satisfactory to all sides, nnd the more enduring because it was founded on consent. The debate was adjourned. VETO BILL IN THE LORDS. READ A FIKST TIME. (Received Hay 18, 1 a.m.) London, May 17. Tho Veto Bill ha? been formally read a first time in the Houso of Lords.