while aiming, not at an
obstructive, but at a revising body of steady, moderate, highly-educated
business men.

We have to choose one of two alternatives: a nominated or an elective
chamber. The choice is difficult, for second chambers all over the world
may be said to be on their trial. On the other hand, nothing vital
depends upon the choice, for experience proves that countries can
flourish equally under every imaginable variety of second chamber,
provided that means exist for enabling popular wishes, in the long-run,
to prevail. The European and American examples are of little use to us,
and the widely varied types within the Empire admit of no sure
inferences. Allowance must be made for the effect of the Referendum
wherever it exists (as in Australia and Switzerland), as a force tending
to weaken both Chambers, but especially the Upper Chamber of a
Legislature. It does, indeed, seem to be generally admitted, even by
Canadians, that the nominated Senate of the Dominion of Canada, which is
added to on strict party principles by successive Governments, is not a
success, and it was so regarded by the Australian Colonies when they
entered upon Federation, and set up an elective Senate. The South
African statesmen, who had to reckon with racial divisions similar to
those in Ireland, compromised with a Senate partly nominated, partly
elected, but made the whole arrangement revisable in ten years.[177]

It would be desirable, perhaps, on similar grounds of immediate policy,
to let those who now represent the minority in Ireland have a deciding
voice in the matter. No arrangement made otherwise than by a free
Ireland herself can be regarded as final, and I suggest only that a
nominated Chamber would be the best expedient at the outset, or in the
alternative a partly nominated, partly elected Chamber.

If and in so far as the Upper Chamber is elective, should election be
direct or indirect? There is a somewhat attractive Irish precedent for
indirect election, namely, the present highly successful Department of
Agriculture, whose Council and Boards the County Councils have a share
in constituting,[178] and I have seen and admired a most ingenious
scheme of Irish manufacture for constructing the whole Irish Legislature
and Ministry on this principle. But the objections appear to be
considerable. Local bodies in the future should not be mixed up in
national politics. That has been their bane in the past. Besides, the
princi