Complex sentence: Ito Hirobumi and the other Meiji leaders deliberately modelled the chamber on the British House of Lords, as a counterweight to the popularly elected House of Representatives (Shūgiin).
Split into simpler sentences: Ito Hirobumi and the other Meiji leaders deliberately modelled the chamber on the British House of Lords. They intended as a counterweight to the popularly elected House of Representatives (Shūgiin).