The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The privilege of voting by proxy, so long defended as a
venerable outwork of the Constitution, has at last, the
Times points out, been surrendered by the House of Lords
pn the report of a select committee. For the present, in-
cleed, the change rests on no higher authority than a new
standing order—" That the practice of calling for proxies
on a:, division shall be discontinued, and that two days'
notice be given of any motion for the suspension of this
order." Lord Malmesbury, however, pledged himself to
introduce resolutions embodying the same rule in a more
permanent form, and the general tone of Tuesday night's
debate shews that no effective opposition will be
offered to them. Our contemporary, therefore, con-
gratulates the Upper House on having sacrificed
a right which, though seldom exercised, has ever
been regarded with natural jealousy by the people.
Mal:ing this its text, the leading journal presents its
readers with what it considers to be the real danger of the
House of Lords. The real danger of the House of Lords
in our days, it says, does not arise from without, but from
within ; and its lose of influence is due to causes almost
entirely within its own control. It is not merely the
emptiness of its benches except on a great field-day of
party warfare which diminishes its legitimate influence,
but the shortness of its sittings and the listless tone of its
debates on subjects of imperial interest. All these visible
shortcomings proceed from one source, and that source is
an inadequate recognition of the responsibilities which
devolve upon a privileged order invested with the func-
tions of a Second Chamber, and which in ancient times
were cheerfully discharged. The rare advantages of our
House of Lords over all other assemblies of the same
kind are freely acknowledged by political writers of
every school, but neither wealth nor traditional influence,
nor leisure, nor independence will compensate for a want
of industry. The one thing the English nation will never
respect in its rulers is self-indulgent idleness, and it is this,
after all, which cripples the action of the House of Lords.
That House, probably, contains at least as large a propor-
tion of ability as the House of Commons, and a larger
proportion of available energy. The average age of its
members is greater, but comparatively few are engaged in
laborious avocations, and most have acquired, by virtue
of their social position, a certain training for public life.
There arc men among them not only capable but am-
bitious of taking an active part in the great work of
legislation, but the highest aspirations of a speaker are
clamped by the spectacle of a thin or impassive
audience, and the knowledge that the debate, however
important it may be, will be certainly cut short by the
dinner hour. It is not only a great misfortune, it is a
great disgrace, that a power which, if lost, it would be
impossible to revive, should be imperilled, not by obsti-
nate resistance to the popular will, but simply by the
apathy of its possessors. Political vigour, like physical
vigour, is maintained by exertion, and, if too much hus-
banded, gradually wastes away. The House of Lords is
still far from having reached this stage, but, if it would
recover constitutional strength, it must follow up such
reforms as the abolition of proxies with a more earnest
devotion to legislative duties.

Men, says the Telegraph, are said to remember the events,
pleasures, and companions of their childhood with a vivid
keenness of recollection not accorded to the incidents of
later life. If that is true, there must be numbers of staid,
middle-aged gentlemen who feel a pang of regret at learn-
ing the death of Mr. Edward Jesse. In the old days
when children's books were neither so plentiful nor so well
written as they are now, the number of works which
formed the Boys' Own Library was comparatively limited.
There is a phase in boyhood when fairy tales have ceased
to enthral, and novels have not yet begun to interest ; and
to that phase works like the " Gleanings of Natural
History " are eminently adapted. Fashion prevails in
literature as well as in costume, and possibly the rising
generation may have other and newer favourites than the
late Mr. Jesse ; but certainly it can have none more
worthy. It was not only that his works on natural
history were charmingly written and really instructive,
even to maturer students than lads at school, but that they
inspired a love of quiet study, a tenderness for all animated
things, an appreciation of the beauties of nature, in which
the general education our boys receive from teachers and
schoolfellows is wont to be sadly deficient. Amongst the
many literary successes of Mr. Jesse's life, there is none to
our estimation higher than the fact that for many a long
clay he ranked in childish estimation with the authors whom
boys most delight to honour.