624 PARLIAMENTS OF THE DOMINIONS [PART III 
should be maintained inviolate; and as it would refrain 
from annexing to a Bill of Aid or Supply any clause or 
clauses of a nature foreign to or different from the matter 
of such a Bill, so the Council would refrain from any steps 
so injurious to the public service as the rejection of an 
Appropriation Bill. He considered that it would be advis- 
able if the two Houses would arrange this by some mutual 
understanding, but it might be found necessary either to 
adopt a joint standing order, as was proposed in 1867, or 
to legislate. The former course would be more convenient, 
but even the clearest definition would not suffice to prevent 
collisions unless interpreted with that discretion and mutual 
forbearance which has been so often exemplified in the 
history of the Imperial Parliament. 
He did not think that any proposals with regard to over- 
coming the deadlocks in ordinarylegislation were satisfactory, 
and he hoped that the Council of Victoria would recognize 
its constitutional position and so transact its business that 
the wishes of the people, as clearly and repeatedly expressed, 
should ultimately prevail. But if both parties would not 
accept a solution, he considered Imperial intervention as 
only probable if the Council should refuse to concur with 
the Assembly in some reasonable proposal for regulating the 
future relations of the two Houses in financial matters, in 
accordance with the precedent of the Imperial Parliament, 
and should persist in such refusal after the proposals of the 
Assembly for that purpose had been ratified by the country 
on an appeal being made to the constituencies. 
Mr. Berry then introduced a Bill to make the Upper House 
nominee with a provision for a referendum as to deadlocks 
in general legislation. But on the third reading the Bill 
failed to obtain an absolute majority in the Assembly, and 
the Ministry was defeated at the general election of February 
1880. It regained office at the election of July, and in 1881 
the franchise was lowered, the property qualification reduced, 
the number of members increased to 42, and the period of 
service of Councillors shortened from ten to six years. 
In 1908 a certain further measure of concession was made *