er house as
Liberals become adherents almost invariably, in time, of Unionism. The
consequence is that, while a Unionist administration is certain to
have the support of a working majority in both of the houses, a
Liberal government cannot expect ever to find itself in the ascendancy
in the Lords. Its measures will be easy to carry in the lower house
but difficult or impossible to carry in the upper one. This was the
central fact in the situation from which sprang the Parliament Act of
1911. By this piece of legislation the Liberals sought to provide for
themselves a mode of escape from the _impasse_ in which the opposition
of the Lords so frequently has involved them. The extent, however, to
which the arrangements effected will fulfill the purpose for which
they were intended remains to be ascertained.[164] "An upper house in
a true parliamentary system," says Lowell, "cannot be brought into
constant accord with the dominant party of the day without destroying
its independence altogether; and to make the House of Lords a mere
tool in the hands of every cabinet would be well-nigh impossible and
politically absurd."[165] Therein must be adjudged still to lie (p. 116)
the essential dilemma of English politics.

[Footnote 164: The literature of the question of
second chamber reform in England is voluminous and
but a few of the more important titles can be
mentioned here. The subject is discussed briefly in
Lowell, Government of England, I., Chap. 22; Moran,
English Government, Chap. 11; Low, Governance of
England, Chap. 13; and H. W. V. Temperley, Senates
and Upper Chambers (London, 1910), Chap. 5.
Important books include W. C. Macpherson, The
Baronage and the Senate; or the House of Lords in
the Past, the Present, and the Future (London,
1893); T. A. Spalding, The House of Lords: a
Retrospect and a Forecast (London, 1894); J. W.
Wylie, The House of Lords (London, 1908); W. S.
McKechnie, The Reform of the House of Lords
(Glasgow, 1909); W. L. Wilson, The Case for the
House of Lords (London, 1910); and J. H. Morgan,
The House of Lords and the Constitution (London,
1