The proposals of the Earl of Clarendon (Conservative) for the reform of the House of Lords were again before the Upper House today.
The Marquess of Reading (Lib-said that the proposals were Uistinet advance on the proposals of the Government put before the House last ye the late Lord Chancellor, All were agreed that there must be r.form of the House with the object of giving all parties fair representa. tion therein, 'A scheme of reform agreeable to their Lordships, he continued, would also have to gain the assent of the people of the country. An exam tion of Lord Clarendon's. proposals, howeve had convinced him that it 18 quite impossible to accept them in their present form. They must. result in. predominantly Corservative membership of the House. To proceed to the election of 150 Peers proportional representation ho cumulative vote of the Peers. themselves must inevitably result a very large majority of Conservative Peers out of that 150, "Reduce" instead Baron Newton (Corservative) moved an amendment limiting Lord Clarendon's proposals. to. the preamble, which declared the desirability of limiting the number of members of the House of Lords and making provision for elected rpresentation of the Peerage and such other representation oF nomination as would ensure to each political party a fair position in the House, This, he said, would eliminate Lord Clurendon's actual proposals.
Tord Clarendon accepted the wendment and expressed his will-yenes also to substitute the word reduce" for "limit."
The Marquess of Salisbury, Lord Privy Seal, replying for the Government, said that the difficulty of this question lay rather in the House of Commons. How could the Government be identified with any special method of reform until ite supporters in the Commons were able to come to some asi Referrine to the parti posals of Lont Clarendon. 1 iabury said he thought that the Secord Chamber ought on the whole to be conservative. It was meant to be a check on careless or headstrong legislation. But the ment could not identify itself with Tord Clarendon's proposals. must not accept a sketch until was prepared to fill in the whole picture and in this ease Parliament had not had the time.
Lord Newton's amentment adopted by 52 votes to 8.
Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.