cup. vii] RELATIONS OF THE HOUSES 599
example, the Bill to prevent the use of steamers on the
Labrador Coasts in 1907 and 1908), but that action was
taken with the consent of the Prime Minister's chief sup-
porters, and cannot be regarded as having been an attempt
to set the Lower House at defiance. In 1894 it was feared
that it might throw out the Taxation Bill of that year,
which had been carried through the Lower House by a
minority government—several of the majority having been
unseated for corrupt practices—but it did not actually do
so. The contrast in this case, as in the case of the Upper
Houses of the Maritime Provinces, between the Council before
responsible government and after is most striking. Before
responsible government the Councils habitually rejected
legislation, and readily—as for years in New Brunswick—
refused to pass appropriation and supply Bills, because they re-
presented the Executive Government and not the popular will.
B. THE ELECTIVE UPPER HOUSES
§ 1. Victoria
Whatever may be the defects of Nominated Second
Chambers, it is difficult not to feel that their demerits
are small and unimportant compared with the demerits of
Elective Second Chambers.
No better example of the defects which arise from creating
two bodies, each with a claim to represent the opinion of the
people, can be given than by examining the history of the
two Houses of the Parliament of Victoria. The two Houses
there have always been elective, and from the first it
has been found impossible to induce harmonious working.
Moreover, the Upper House has, simply and solely from
the nature of the case, being elected on a higher franchise
than the Lower, and the members being required to have a
property franchise, been representative of wealth, and is there-
fore accused—a charge which it is difficult to deny—of devot-
ing its main efforts to considering the interests of the wealthier
slasses, more especially the land-owners of the Colony.
This characteristic appeared in the earliest cases of
serious dispute between the two Houses. which took
