The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-08 00:00:00

Spirit of the Public Journals.

(From the Times of this day.)
The House of Lords had last night the very great treat of A
splendid exercitation on a constitutional theme by our oldest
and ablest' Conservative lawyer. It was impossible to listen •
to Loyd, Lyndhurst's review of the precedents anticipated for
the creation of a peerage for life without following him to the
conclusion that the measure is at least a stretch of the prero-
gative. It may be granted that every single precedent is
foul y, either in respect of the times, or in some great specia-
lity of circumstances, or in the manifestly objectionable cha-
racter of the persons ennobled, or the more general objection
that in order to prove the power of the preroga'tive we must
go back to a period when its power was almost indefinite, and
must therefore prove too much for oar purpose. But, while the
attempt to establish the perfectly constitutional character of
the recent creation may thus cud in proving too much, we
must say that Lord Lyndhurst's own line of argument proved
too much in another direction. Ho established most
satisfactorily that we had no alternative whatever but
to remain iu a position not merely difficult, incon-
venient, and scandalous, but practically intolerable, admitted
to be so long ago, and becoming worse every year. That
position is, that while the House of Lords very naturally
clings to its appellate jurisdiction, and Lord Lyndhurst would
certainly denounce as an outrage on the constitution any at-
tempt to relieve it of the burden ; and while the law peers
very properly resent the intrusion of the lay peers on what
becomes, pro tempore, the seat of justice, the highest legal
tribunal of the country dwindles into the casual attendance
of one or to-o raw peers, generally far advanced in years, who
may or may not know anything about the question or the
law upon which it turns. The House of Lords, as a court of
appeal, no longer commands the respect of the country, and,
except in some very rare cases, its decisions are only the
mere solemn affirmation of the judgment pronounced is the
court below. Could the -House of Lords be persuaded to
give up this function to a body really competent to dis-
charge. ite-the Judicial Committee of Privy Council—that
would give us, in exchange for a constitutional pageant, it
solid security 'for justice. But Lord Lyndhurst does not
advise this, and certainly the change would have much the
same unconstitutional look as that under consideration. In-
deed the peculiar difficulty of the question is that it is a con-
stitutional one. The constitution must be stretched, or settled
by a "declaratory" measure, to use a Parliamentary phrase,
one way or another; and what we have to consider is whether
the creation of peerages for life be not the least objectionable
measure for the purpose.
No dOnbt an imme lists remedy is found for the difficulty
by summoning lawyers to the Rouse of Lords ; but the pro.
cess is not carried on far enough to answer its purpose, and,
as far as it does go, is productive of grave inconveniences.
The law is fast becoming the only channel to the peerage, to
the obstruction of other old channels. There is now a large
class of Commoners in the country, of such wealth and posi-
tion, such territorial power and social influence, that they
would rather strengthen the peerage than derive any
additional consequence from it. Certainly it is very expedient
that some of this native strength of the country, the spon-
taneous growth of her industry, her genius, and her domes-
tic virtues, sheuld be infused into the peerage, and the Lords
would be all the stronger, the Commons rather mere tolerant
of their priority, for such an infusion. Bid the benches of
the Peers, or rather the roll of the peerage, is so full, that
no more Peerages can be made, and, in fact, there are very
few creations except the law Peers. We have no wish to
mention names. There is not a single lawyer in the house
that we are not glad to see there. But when we look from
the Peer to the peerage, from the man to the family now
founded, we must say that we could select many a family
from the rank of British Commoners which we would rather
see permanently added to the peerage than these forced upon
it under existing circumstances, The feeling is so general as
notoriously to produce a certain loaning of a not very agree-
able character. in favour of lawyers without families ; and
it is a matter of notoriety that a distinguished lawyer
who either is not married, or too old to have
children, is more likely to have a peerage than
a man tolerably certain to transmit the honour. Such calcu-
lations aro .very ridiculous, but they are a natural consequence
of the constitutional scruple Lord Lyndhurst insists on.
Granting, as we are ready to do, that the difficulty has
been met by a stretch of the prerogative, at least, by an ex-
traordinary revival of its original powers, wo can only say that
these offences against the constitution aro not so uncommon.
Lord Grey may have hesitated to create life peerages, but he
did quite as strong a thing in calling some twenty eldest sons
of Peeisisfrom the Commons to the Lords, and, indeed, in his
other large creation of Peers. Again, for about a thousand
years, much further back than Lord Lyndhurst went last
night, it has beeu unconstitutional for an English Bishop not
to have a scat in the House of Lords, yet we have come to see
a bishop without a seat ; indeed, as if in order to disabuse
the bishops of their constitutional prejudices, they are all
made to pass through the most unconstitutional stage of exis-
tence. A representative peerage is a very unconstitutional
idea, certainly very foreign to English usages, yet we have con-
sented to see the Royal prerogative controlled by the
suffrages of subjects, so that when her Majesty has made a
peer, as in Ireland, he cannot sit in the House of Lords unless
his ftelow-peers scud him there, while in Scotland they have
even the power of depriving him of his seat. In the case of
the Irish Bishops, the seat which constitutionally it is her
Majesty's to giye outright is held in rotation. In these cases
it will be said that Parliament made itself responsible for the
alteration ; but that does not prevent the alteration being of
an unconstitutional character, as much so, indeed, as if Par-
liament were now to adopt a suggestion once thrown out by
Loid Bfoug,hauCand'reduce the House of Lords itself to the
constituent of a select working chamber. In the present
instance it would not have been expedient to go to Parlia-
- went for the change. To do so would have been an admission
that, the Crown could not make the change out of the fulness
of the prerogative, and that admission would have been more
unconstitutional than the course actually adopted. It is quite
possible,
too that the Lords would have objected to the mea-
sure, and clone so in a spirit and with expressions fatal to
any further proceedings on the subject. Lord Lyndhurst did
not expressly assert the creation to be illegal, for the obvious
reason that the prerogative of the Crown is not so limited as
the powers derived from it, or created by Parliament. The
prerogative is wisely left undefined, at least only defined where
its abuses in former days compelled limitation. Where it is
not so defined, the only limitation is common sense alai the
public weal. 'Whether the creation of life peers is likely to be
injurious to the independence of, he house, the purity of jus-
tice, and the general interests of the nation, is a question of
common sense, -and will be decided, we think, against Lord
Lyndhurst. On his own showing, life peerages have been
created since the Restoration for private reasons, and the
creations were good. Then, why not for public reasons? The
very mention of the moral aspect of these peerages shows that
it is a question of public convenience ; and, if it be beneficial
to confer a life peerage upon a bad woman, much more is it
upon a good man.

(From, the Morning Herald of this day.)
For a man who declares that he is " done .for," and has
nothing more to expect in this life but the smiles of an ap-
proving conscience and the happiness of having done his
aut7, the gallant member for Bath displayed, last night, re.

markable energy, and, we may add, considerable ability , in
his expose of the abuses in the present administration of the
navy. Captain Seobell has made out, it need not be denied,
a clear case for inquiry, which neither Sir James Graham
nor Sir Charles Wood, with all the confidence and casuistry
peculiar to those right hon. baronets, are able to gainsay or
resist.
. That the Royal navy—England's pride, her historic glory,
and, the right arm of her power should be abused to a
greater extent, not only than the other branch of the pro-
fession of arms, but than any ether branch of the pub-
lic service, seems at first sight somewhat unaccountable ; yet
that it is so, is, we fear, capable of direct demonstration.
The number of gallant officers who have deserved well of
their country, but whose claims have, nevertheless, been
Blighted in order to confer promotion on the scions of noble
houses and other fortunate individuals, is positively incre-
dibhL The partiality with which patronage has been dis-
tributed during a forty years' peale, and even since the out-
break of hostilities, would hardly he credited, but that the
proofs are at hand. We have reached A day when this state
of things cannot be suffered to exist when the noble A 'e,
B.'s, and o.'s shall be taken for what they are worth in the
service, and no more—when deserving officers shall no longer
be left a prey to disappointralut and that deferred hope
which sickens the heart and sours the whole raan—when Eng-
land's peculiar service shall be every way worthy of her—
worthy of her, not only in its great 'powers and achievements,
but in its internal economy ttnd thansgematit —directed by
the sound practical sense of Engljeitraen, aid having regard
to the fair play which pre-eminfttly distinguishes the cha-
racter of this free people.

We quite believe; th;t the projected inquiry is grateful to,
and desired by, the service at lan* Captain Scobellhas not,
we feel assured, overstated the feeling of the navy upon this
subject; but we are inclined to think that the member for
Bath in developing' and stigmatising abuses, referred to indi-
viduals in authority, rather tban to the existence of au anti-
quated and injurious system. It is no Tian of our duty to
defend Sir James Graham or Sir C. 1141.183 Wood—we know
the administrative abilities of the former are proved to
have been absurdly exaggerated, and we believe no one
ever expected much from the latter; it is but justice,
however, to say that no man, let his abilities be ever so
great, and his intentions ever so hones', could avoid
the effects of abuses created and *fostered by a system
which must .be thoroughly reformed. It is abstird and
unjust to-charge the evils fairly complained of by Captain
Se.ohell on the Board of Admiralty.
,That44ard aro admini-
strators, not refepners_;._tbe._ 50n.x40.; pf the
.10,noes which
threaten, if not amended, to render England's first"
service
eminently unpopu'ar, and to drive our seamen into the war
ships of other nations, lies too deep for eradication, or even
avoidance; by half-a-dozen gentlemen, lay and professional,
whose tenure of office is quite precarious, and who seem to
have nothing for it but to administer the system as they find
it. Certain minor reforms are within reach of the Board of
Admiralty, and we are bound to say that board has not been
slow to avail itself of any powers it possesses to affect them.
We may refer to the recent changes is the medical depart-
ment in the navy in support of this assertion. In the main,
however, the Admiralty cannot inaugurate reforms. It is
'or Parliament first to investigate i.huses, and then to eradi-
cate them, or, if possibly, to prcvide against their future
growth, and we are hound to say that Parliamentary inquiry
into the present condition of the naval administration need
not be deferred for want of materids.

The House of Commons have, however, decided against the
inquiry, and whatever necessity may exist for such a step we
cannot but say that in the present state of affairs the house
is right. This is not exactly the time for such a proceeding,
however desirable—peace is not yet concluded, and a vivi-
section of exposurl of abuses in our naval economy aid ad-
usinistra.tion would not tend to make Russia easier to be dealt
with, and the negotiations about to commence the more hope-
ful, The revelations of Captain Scobell respecting the man-
ning of the Baltic fleet in 1854, attes ed and confirmed asthey
were last night by Admiral Napier, are in themselves suffi-
ciently derogatory to the naval characterof England. The fleet
which now upholds the honour of the." meteor flag" does not
include one-half the number of liners, or anything like one-
half the number of men (including sailors and marines) as
that fleet which in 1800 went forth to assert England's supre-
macy on the seas.
True, we have now an agency at oar command, which has
revolutionised naval warfare, yet the fact remains the same,
that our naval service has fallen in popularity, and we have
found that the sweepings of our towns and of our dockyards
afford but a poor substitute for the thorough-going, daring,
simple-minded sailor who conquered fer England her maritime
empire.
Captain Scobell did no more than ustiee to Mr. Disraeli,
when he refired to the strong sense manifested by that right
hon, gentleman, and the Administration of which he was a
distinguished member, of the necessity fora thorough naval
reform. Lord Derby's Government did really give assurance of
their intention to effect such a revolution. But the other day
LOrdlMalmosbnry described the condition in which the naval
attertiaPVere "found when the DUkopf Northumberland and
lilit.44l4T,Agnes commenced their labours. We need net say
Alit Were the results of those labours, honestly pursued for
a. As* Months. Let the present condition of the fleet, as re-
gards its materiel, speak for the efforts, well directed and
unremitting, which, two years before the war broke out,
placed our fleet in a state of preparation. We need only say,
that had the career of improvement then entered upon been
steadily pursued there would be less need of the reform so
imperatively demanded to-day.