The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-20 00:00:00

LONDON, SA7 URDAY, FEB. 20, 1600.

.~_.._d-

A very just complaint has been made byltienon-
official members of the house of Lords, on recount
of the inconsistent arrangement of the Parliamentary
work of the Session. There are two sides to every
question, and those who sneer at the
lordlings, and remark on the dolce far 72 ti:tal3 y
e styleaeiincapacity
of
f
procedure in their House, forget thatthhoeool areccup notants
of the prim benches of the Upper School
their own masters in respect to the
per-
form. The first part of the Session is workliteralltyhetyhrownaway, so far as the House of Locds is concerned, and
atnhde
when the heat of summer brings lassitude n
Commons are well-nigh worn out with the fury of
their long continued strife, the pressure of work on
the Peers is somethin,, alarming.
Theyn
possibly manage to do it all, and they cannot dao any
part of it properly, so one measure is dropped and Igelln;t
an-
other hurried over, while perhaps here and there a parti-
cular case of importance attracts attention. Then on all
sides indignant murmurs arise as to the obstinacy
and infatuation of the Lords in wasting time is empty
discourse when matters ought to be wound up.
Surely it would be wise to consider these things be-
times, and at the spring-dawn of another session to
amend the error of past ways. So far the Govern-
ment have done well in the general outline of public
business; but they have, of course, made sundry mis-
takes in particular affairs, and this want of work for
the Lords is one. Lord CHELMSFORD on Thursday
called attention to the fact that Lord GRANVILLE had
promised them a fair amount of public business at
once, and asked why the Bankruptcy Bill was to be
introduced into the House of Commons. So many
noble and learned lords were competent to deal with
this question that it seemed the more extraordinary
that such an arrangement should have been made.
Lord SALISBURY followed up the attack in one of his
forcible speeches, and set forth the wrongs of that
House of which he is so prominent a member. Their
enforced idleness before Easter led to a crush of
work at the fag end of the session, and the
result was most unsatisfactory. The physi-
cal power of the Legislative Assembly failed
under the pressure of the flood of bills that
came up from the Commons at the beginning of each
July. We must really coincide with the noble mar-
quis in his opinion on the matter, and recognise the
truth of his assertion that "it was a sham to call
that House a Legislative Body," and then to expect
it to perform Legislative duties at the fag end of
theSeesion, allowing only 10 or 15 minutes for each
bill.

Lord GRANVILLE made one of his smooth replies,
and admitted the truth of what had been said on the
subject. He declared, however, that the evil was one
of ancient date, for 15 years ago Lord ABERDEEN
had said that during the fifty years over which his
memory extended, the same thing could be said. It
appears that the noble lord himself has a grievance
ou the matter, for he had been taken by surprise at
finding, with regard to two bills on which he had
counted, that notice was given on the first night of
the Session of their introduction into the House of
Commons. He wound up with the consoling
assurance that he would impress upon his col-
leagues the claims of their lordships for business
to be provided whileithey had time to transact it.
Lord CAIRNS spoke very much to the purpose, and
suggested that the Government should reconsider the
course they might take with respect to the Bank-
ruptcy Bill. The importance of that measure was
so considerable that, accordirg to present arrange-
ments, it could not reach that U use before the end