Morning journal and courier., 1881-08-30
Sourual anb Gullrier.
Tuesday Morning, August 30. 1881.
The English People and the House of
 Lords.

Vne EnR11Sn F0Op16 anu the E1OuBe OA
 Lords.
 A correspondent of the PaN MaN Gazette has spent some time in an English manufac- turing and seaport town in interviewing all classes of people with view to ascertain their judgment upon the value of hereditary legislators. He says: <.
 E'So far as my inquiries have extended the popular judgment seems to be that the House of Lords is now an obsolete and obstructive institution, althogether unsuited to the time, and that if not absolutely swept away it ought to be reformed quite out of semblance of it's present self. Everywhere it is spoken of with open contempt. Times out of number have listened while my lords were describ- ed as thumbugs' 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 interests as their first concern, though they may be both directly and indirectly op- posed to those of every other class of the people. By the great bulk of the shopkeep- CTS and the workingmen in the provinces, observant men tell .me, the House of Lords has long been regarded as an obnoxious lnst1- tuition; the middle class, testimony accumu- lates, has rapidly within recent years approx imated to the same conclusion. respecta- ble, quiet-going workingman, representative of his fellows upon an important public board, tells me that he never could see of what earthly use the House of Lords was ; while the chief of an important trade organ ization, rough though shrewd mechanic, declares, there is not one intelligent work ingman out of twenty who has the slightest respect for the House of Lords.' As for the M-informed and the ignorant section of the working class, they are more vehement than their intelligent brethren in demanding an abolition of the privileges of the peers, their antagonism having it's foundation not so much in political sentiment as in the semi-socialist feeling which finds expression in the inquiry, Why should they be living lazy, lordly lives, possessing power and enjoying the best of everything, while we have to work hard and long for little more than the barest subsis telce ?
 s'So far as see, the general opinion among the wage earning classes here is summed uI in the expressive phrase that them chaps ought to be abolished But it is not only upper house. A gentleman who from hii position is brought much into close contact with the wealthy and cultivated in this tow1 tells me he has noted within the past thirty years remarkable progress of opinion ad verse to the exceptional position and privi leges of the peers. Says another observer whose business causes him to mix freely witt all classes, You would be astonished at thu amount of republican feeling which exist even in the upper middle class, and the Lord will o well to be careful Quiet going mel are asking, What is the use of our being a the trouble and expense of selecting anC sending men to represent us in the House O Commons if their. resolutions are to be vetoed | by irresponsible, birth-appointed men, wh' l have thepower thus to obstruct the execution of the demands of the netion?' P tThe here l ditary House of Lords,' exclaims one man o | wide experience, lis an infamous anomaly :! | With the House of Lords the House of Com mons is farce' The wanton stoppage o | urgent reforns agreed upon bo5h in principa f and detail by their representatives in the low ! CT house that is where the power of the Hous of Lords seems to grip people in this copsti l tuency.', They do not trouble to go into fine | spun theories as to the advantages of heredi | tary assemblies or even of chambers of re
 view, nor care to impress themselves wit
 the historical. It seems to me, if I may judg
 the English people from those whom hay
 been meeting here, that they want necessar
 legislation to be passed, and they are deter
 mined not to be baked in the accomplish I ment of their desire by men with no legit
 mate claim to authority over them. In shor
 they are content still to have masters, but, z
 MT. Freeman describes the attitude of th
 Athenians after the reforms of Solon, the
 need to be masters of their own choosing.