[13] I need hardly add that financial measures are entirely unsuited to a referendum. Financial and executive control go together, and to take either of them out of the hands of the majority in the House of Commons is not to reform our system but to destroy it root and branch. The same is not true of legislative control. There are cases in which a government might fairly submit a legislative measure to the people without electing to stand or fall by it.

[14] Probably the best alternative to these proposals is that of a small directly elected Second Chamber, with a provision for a joint session in case of insuperable disagreement, but with no provision for delay. This proposal has the advantage, apparently, of commanding a measure of Conservative support.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Locke.—Second Treatise on Civil Government (1689).
Paine.—The Rights of Man (1792).
Bentham.—Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789!).
J. S. Mill.—Principles of Political Economy (Books IV and V).
On Liberty.
Representative Government.
The Subjection of Women.
Autobiography.
Cobden.—Political Writings.
Bright.—Speeches.
Mazzini.—The Duties of Man.
Thoughts on Democracy in Europe.
Jevons.—The State in Relation to Labour.
T. H. Green.—Principles of Political Obligation.
Liberal Legislation and Freedom of Contract (Works, vol. iii).
Morley.—Life of Cobden.
Life of Gladstone.
F. W. Hirst.—The Manchester School.
G. Lowes Dickinson.—Liberty and Justice.
Prof. H. Jones.—The Working Faith of the Social Reformer.
Prof. McCunn.—Six Radical Thinkers.

INDEX