nature of the Government's finance proposals see
May and Holland, Constitutional History of England,
III., 350-355; G. L. Fox, The British Budget of
1909, in _Yale Review_, Feb., 1910; and D.
Lloyd-George, The People's Budget (London, 1909),
containing extracts from the Chancellor's speeches
on the subject.]

[Footnote 155: The Finance Bill passed its third
reading in the House of Commons April 27, was
passed in the Lords April 28, without division, and
received the royal assent April 29.]

[Footnote 156: The votes on the three resolutions
were, respectively, 339 to 237, 351 to 246, and 334
to 236.]

Meanwhile, March 14, there had been introduced in the House of Lords
by Lord Rosebery an independent series of resolutions, as follows: (1)
that a strong and efficient second chamber is not merely a part of the
British constitution but is necessary to the well-being of the state
and the balance of Parliament; (2) that such a chamber may best be
obtained by the reform and reconstitution of the House of Lords; and
(3) that a necessary preliminary to such a reform and reconstitution
is the acceptance of the principle that the possession of a peerage
should no longer of itself involve the right to sit and vote in (p. 109)
the House. The first two of these resolutions were agreed to without
division; the third, although vigorously opposed, was carried
eventually by a vote of 175 to 17.

*113. The Unionists and the Referendum.*--The death of the king, May 6,
halted consideration of the subject, and through the succeeding summer
hope was centered in a "constitutional conference" participated in by
eight representatives of the two houses and of the two principal
parties. A total of twenty-one meetings were held, but all effort to
reach an agreement proved futile and at the reassembling of
Parliament, November 15, the problem was thrown back for solution upon
the houses and the country. November 17 there was carried in the
Lords, without division, a new resolution introduced by Lord Rosebery
to the effect that in future the House of Lords should consist of
Lords of Parliament in part chosen by the whole body of hereditary
peers from among themselves and by nomination of the crown, in