Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-09-07
THE HOUSE OF LORDS.-"THEM
CHAPS OUGHTTO BE ABOLISHED.'


A correspondent of the Pail Mall
Gazette has spent some timein an En-
glish manufacturing and seaport town In
interviewing all classes of people with a
view to ascertain their judgment upon
the value of hereditary Legislators. He
says:
$50 far as my inquiries have extended
the popular judgment seems to be that
the House of Lords is now an obsolete
and obstructive institution, entirely
unsuited to the time, and that if not
absolutely swept away it ought to be re-
formed out of semblance to its present
sell. Everywhere it is spoken of with
open contempt Times out of number
l have listened while my Lords
were described as 'humbugs' and great
humbugs' and in like phrases of ridicule
and indignation. In short the House of
Lords is regarded simply as an assembly
Of landlords who regard their own inter
ests as their first concern, though they may
be both directly and indirectly opposed
to those of every other class of the people.
BY the great bulk of the shopkeekers
and workingmen of the provinces, OBJ
servant men tell me, the House of Lords
has long been considered an obnoxious
institution; the middle class, testimony
| accumulates, has rapidly approximated
to the same conclusion. A respectable
| quiet-going workingman, representa-
tive of his fellows on an important pub
lie board, tells me that he never could
see of what earthly use the House of
Lords was, while the chief of an i'm
portant trade organization, rough but
shrewd mechanic, declares There is not
one intelligent workingman out Of twen-
ty who has the slightest respect for the
House of Lords As for the ill-informed
and ignorant section of the working
| class, they are more vehement than.
their more intelligent brethren in de-
handing an abolition of the privileges
OF the Peers, their antagonism having
its foundation not so much in political
sentiments as in the semi-socialist feel
ing which finds expression in the -inqui-
ry, why should they be living lazy,
lordly lives possessing power and enjoy
ing the best of everything, while we have
to work hard and long for little more than
the barest subsistence"
$50 far as | see the general opinion
among the wage-earning classes here is
summed up in the expressive phrase that
them chaps ought to be abolished But
it is not only the working class that is
unfriendly to the Upper House. A gen.
tleman who from his position is brought
much into close contact with the wealthy
and cultivated in this town tells me he
has noted within the past thirty years
remarkable progress of opinion adverse
to the exceptional position and privileges
Of the Peers. Says another observer
whose business causes him to mix freely
with all classes, You would be astonished
at the amount of republican feeling
which exists even IN the upper middle
class, and the Lords will do well to be
careful. Quiet-going men are asked:
What is the use of our being at the
trouble and expense of selecting and
sending men to represent us in the House
eff Commons if their resolutions are to be
vetoed by irresponsible, birth-appointed
men, who have the power thus to OBJ
struct the execution of the demands of
the nation?' The hereditary House of
Lords, exclaims one man of wide exper-
fence, lis an infamous anomaly with
the House of Lords acting as it frequent
~ does declares another, the House of
Commons is farce" The wanton stop
page of urgent reforms agreed upon both
in principle and detail by their repre-
sentatives in the Lower House-that is
where the power of the House of Lords
seems to grip people in this constituency
They do not trouble to 60 into fne-spun
theories as to the advantages of hereditary
assemblies, or even of chambers of Re
view, nor care to impress themselves with
the historical. 1t seems to me, if | may
judge the English people from those
whom [ have been meeting here, that
they want necessary legislation to be
passed, and they are determined not to
be baked in the accomplishment of their
desire by men with no legimate claim to
authority over them. In short they are
content still to have their masters, but,as
Mr.. Freeman describes the attitude of
the Athenians after the reforms of Scion,
they need to be masters of their own
choosing.''