abolition, are bound to offer to the great mass of prudent electors some
measure of electoral reform which will give greater stability to the
results of the polls, and will make the results at a General Election
more in keeping with the actual balance of opinion in the country." [5]
The preamble of the Parliament Bill itself implies that the decisions of
the House of Commons may not always be in accordance with the national
wishes. It foreshadows the creation of a new Second Chamber, and the
only purpose which this chamber can serve is to make good the
deficiencies of the First.

The fact that our electoral methods are so faulty that their results
produce in the minds of many electors deep misgivings as to the
representative character of the House of Commons must materially
undermine the authority of that House. All who desire the final and
complete triumph of representative institutions--a triumph that depends
upon their success in meeting the demands made upon them--all who are
anxious that the House of Commons shall not only maintain, but increase,
the prestige that has hitherto been associated with it, must, in the
face of possible constitutional developments, endeavour to strengthen
its position by making it in fact, as it is in theory, fully
representative of the nation. For Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's
quotation from Burke is double-edged, and may be expressed thus: "the
virtue, the spirit, the essence of the House of Commons departs as soon
as it ceases to be the express image of the nation." Such a House cannot
furnish an adequate basis of support for a Government. For the
Government which issues from it will not command public confidence. The
debates in the House in 1905, before the resignation of Mr. Balfour,
bore testimony to the fact that the strength and power of a Government
which, according to the theory of our constitution, depends upon the
number of its supporters in the House of Commons, in reality rests upon