New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-08-02

flammatOry suggestions OIL inc maiquo VI S""'
bury Lord Penzance made legal defense IN
opposition to the attack of his rival iaw-Lord
Romilly, and Lord Northbrook did MT see now
Government could have done anything eise'
The case thus ably stated, and, we cannot heip
surmising, rather feebly opposed, went 70 INC
House, and majority of eighty decideu VIZ
tually that the Peers of Great Britain nave no
legislative rights which Crown and Commons
are bound to respect.
"A Their vote amounts in effect to no less tllan
that. If they have any right to veto Dill
duly passed after full discussion by the popu-
lar branch of the Legislature under the iead
of tho Ministry, then 1t was certainly ruuo
encroachment upon their just authority Tor the
Ministry to nullify their action by hoyal
Warrant. 1t placed them too prominently IN
the position which general estimation has long
assigned them, Of q mere simulacrum OF iegis-
lative force, puerile show OF Senate
whose only real function was to sanction the
DEGREES of the Commons without daring
TO alter or reject them. There has been
loud and angry chatting against this po-
sition from time to time, but this decisive vote
would seem to indicate that true perception
of the bitter truth has begun to invade even
those serene attitudes. Sooner or later this was
sure to come. 1t Is felt though not clearly
confessed, in England, that the law-making
power belongs to the nation, that the boarding
I'D OF this gravest function in the hands OF q
few families was the most glazing of anachro-
nisms. Yet there is repugnance which it is
easy to comprehend against the abolition OF
the hereditary chamber. 1t is associated so
intimately with every Englishman's pride OF
country, it is hallowed by SO many glorious
traditions, that even pronounced Liberals OF
the better sort would prefer not to abolish 1t,
nor to lesson its apparent prerogative. John
Quincy Adams once wittily said, politician
could only retain his influence by never using
IT. and these are precisely the terms upon
which the people of England will be willing
to allow the Lords their cooperation In the
work of legislation.
Since many years, the Peers have been
virtually deprived of any effectual veto upon
the action of the popular Chamber. Several
times an unfriendly verdict has been reversed
by wholesale creation of Peers, and still
oftener the possession of the royal authority
for this measure thas brought the recalcitrant
Lords to terms. Lord Brougham, at an i'm
portant juncture, extorted from William the
Fourth written authorization to this effect
as condition of his remaining in Office, and
armed with this, he retained his majority
among the frightened Peers. The stock is not
so fatally watered by the process as one might
at first suppose; the increase of Peers is
usually only temporary, as the Government
raises to the peerage, where it is practicable, the
eldest sons of Peers who are devoted to it. But
the possession of so formidable power has
usually been ellicacious without the actual
employment of it. The Importance CT this
arm ia yecogpized on the Continent as well,
In 1868, the Emperor of Austria created
large number of liberal Peers to insure the
passage through the Herrenhaus of the laws
guaranteeing religious freedom in the Empire.
With this rod constantly held in terrorem over
it, no legislative body can pretend to any
independent power. 1t must sink into a
merely ceremonial, or at best advisory, po-
siton; and this, unless its organization and
composition should be radically altered, would
seem to be the future of the English House
Of I or1c