UNCERTAIN HEALTH 285 



Sanderson writes to him, in December, relative 

 to a reply which he addressed to the Times in 

 answer to an attack by Mr. Lloyd George on the 

 House of Lords, that a connection of his was so 

 much struck by the letter that he had asked 

 the House of Lords Defence League to have it 

 published and disseminated as a leaflet. This 

 was done, in the following form : 



LORD AVEBURY ON THE SECOND 

 CHAMBER 



(Reply to Mr. Lloyd George) 



Mr. Lloyd George asserts that the Lords "are not 

 in touch with the realities of life." This assertion is 

 not only incorrect, but absurd, as the House of Lords 

 probably contains a larger number of practical business 

 men and experienced Statesmen than any other Second 

 Chamber in the world. 



Lord Avebury — himself a member of the Upper 

 Chamber, and one of the best all-round men in the 

 country — has answered Mr. Lloyd George conclusively 

 in the following letter to the Times, November 29, 1910 : 



" The question now before our countrymen is whether 

 we should, or should not, have a really effective Second 

 Chamber. The experience and opinion of the civilized 

 world — of the United States, of France, Germany, 

 Italy — is almost unanimous ; and our Government have 

 instituted Second Chambers in all our great self-govern- 

 ing Colonies. There are now about a dozen countries 

 with Single Chamber Government, including Costa Rica, 

 Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, 

 St. Domingo, Salvador, Servia, and Turkey, all of which, 

 with one or perhaps two exceptions, are insolvent. We 

 have, moreover, ourselves already tried the Single 

 Chamber system and found it intolerable. 



"A Question of Fact 



" Mr. Lloyd George, however, takes a different view. 

 That is a matter of opinion, and in matters of opinion 

 a minority, however insignificant, may be right. 



