of a brake upon the process of change. They have felt that to
justify a new departure of any magnitude there must be something more
than a bare majority. There must either be a large majority, two-thirds
or three-fourths of the electorate, or there must be some friction to be
overcome which will serve to test the depth and force as well as the
numerical extent of the feeling behind the new proposal. In the United
Kingdom we have one official brake, the House of Lords, and several
unofficial ones, the civil service, the permanent determined opposition
of the Bench to democratic measures, the Press, and all that we call
Society. All these brakes act in one way only. There is no brake upon
reaction--a lack which becomes more serious in proportion as the
Conservative party acquires a definite and constructive policy of its
own. In this situation the Liberal party set itself to deal with the
official brake by the simple method of reducing its effective strength,
but, to be honest, without having made up its mind as to the nature of
the brake which it would like to substitute. On this question a few
general remarks would seem to be in place. The function of a check on
the House of Commons is to secure reconsideration. Conservative leaders
are in the right when they point to the accidental elements that go to
the constitution of parliamentary majorities. The programme of any
general election is always composite, and a man finds himself compelled,
for example, to choose between a Tariff Reformer whose views on
education he approves, and a Free Trader whose educational policy he
detests. In part this defect might be remedied by the Proportional
system to which, whether against the grain or not, Liberals will find
themselves driven the more they insist on the genuinely representative
character of the House of Commons. But even a Proportional system would
not wholly clear the issues before the electorate. The average man
gives his vote on the question which he takes to be most important in
itself, and which he supposes to be most likely to come up for immediate
settlement. But he is always liable to find his expectations defeated,
and a Parliament which is in reality elected on one issue may proceed to
deal with quite another. The remedy proposed by the Parliament Bill was
a two years' delay, which, it was held, would secure full discussion and
considerable opportunity for the manifestation of opinion should it be
adverse. This pro