New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-08-11
LORDS IND COlTEONr0


Such menaces as are now offered to the House
of Lords by the Liberal press in England have
been common enough during the present reign
After the passage of tho Reform Act of 1892
the centre of political power was shifted from
the Upper to the Lo Ner House. The landed
aristocracy lost control of the popular chamber
when the nomination bo>oughs were abolished
and the centres Of population were given their
r'ghtful proportion of influence in the State.
The middle classes with their masses of accum-
ulated capital became the dominant force in
public life. Whenever their supremacy has
been questioned, menaces and recrimnat ions
are heard, and the Lords find it necessary to
make concessions TO the Commons in order to
prolong their own existence as u coordinate
branch Of the Legislature. The fact that the
Government of the day depends upon the sup
port OF majority of the Lower House, and is
utterly indifferent to votes of censilre from the
Lords, has sinplifed constitutional practice
Lord Sherbrookc has gone so far as to say that
:" the whole power of the country-all that we
have read of as divided among the different
estates Of the rcalm--has really now entirely
"centred itself in the House Of Commons, and
everything turns upon it's will.n
A year after the passage of the great Reform
Act, the House of Lords challenged public
opinion AS expressed by the Commons on
question of foreign policy. IN one of the series
OF letters collected by Mr.. Trevelyan, we fad
Lord Macaulay referring in the most contemp-
tuous tones to this outhurst from a House
whose decadence and inferiority were matter of
common jest. "Nobody seems to care orc
straw" he wrote, for what the Peers say
about any public matter. A resolution OF the
Court of Common Council, or % meeting at
"FreemaSOns Hall, has often made IL greater
sensation than this declaration of branch of
the Legislature against the Executive Govern
"ment. The institution of the peerage is evil
IDENTITY dying natural death" The conf
dence with which this startling assertion was
made by one of the closest students of ENGLISH
history was only natural after tho storm and
stress of the political revolution in which the
titled nobility had been overpowered The
peerage, however, as a political institution had
greater powers of vitality than the most con
servative statesmen of the period suspected.
The Lords have shown during the half century
that has elapsed since Lord Macaulay expressed
his contempt for their political influence re-
markable facility i'll adapting themselves TO
new conditions whenever the national will has
been powerfully exerted. They havo never
ceased To offer assistance to every pouular
movement directed against their privileges as A
titled class, as a landOwnng aristocracy and IA
coordinate branch of the Legislature: but
they have had sufficient discretion To avoid
prolonging tho struggle after they had lis
cerned that the Commons and the mass of the
nation were dead IN earnest. The conse nucnce
has been that they lave emerged from one
constitutional crisis after another with their
privileges more sharply defined, but not essen
TALLY impaired. At tae same time they have
never been renyigoTated even by such adyen-
htious aid as was afforded few years ago bv
the presence among them Of the Premier and
the greatest orators of the party in power and
by the incrtness and docility of the Iower
Chamber
Mr.. Gladstone during his protracted career
has fought more than one battle with the Tords
on constitutional ground. One of his most
memorable struggles wa, over the repeal of tbe
paper duties in 1861. When they attemnted
to retain tax which the Commons had voted
to remove, they ran counter to the traditional
practice of the Houses. Mr. Gladstone met this
assault upon the undisputed privileges of tho
popular Chamber ny massng all his financial
proposals in single bill, 80 that the Lords
could not maintain the paper duties without
cutting off supplies and making Themselves
responsible for an administrative deadlock
Another great occasion on which Mr.. Gladstone
outwitted the Lords WAS in 1871, when his bill
for the abolition of the glaring abuses of armv
purchase was rejected by them after il had beau
passed by the Commons. Without stoomng to
make any compromise, he chose tho ALTERNATIVES
of proceeding by Royal warrant without refer
ence to the legislative action of either Houae
When the Land bill of 1870 was mutilated NV
the Lords he could not have recourse n any
expedlent OF this sort He held his ground SO
far as he could, but was forced to yield ON sew
eral essential points, thereby rendering q hill
which had been maturcd with paipstaLi,g
effort imperative in the famine years whom i
might have proved most useful. We shall aeon
know whether the success of the present Land
bill is to be hazarded by similar cornerstone
Lord Salisbury has his spurs to win "a n IcoIor
or the Conservative party, but the Lord.
Will doubtless think twice before defv;n,
public sentiment when it is unequiyocaIlv NV.
pressed by the popular House in the re;cctior
or the anomalous amendments that have boor
made to the act. If they have proiitcd NV tbo
experience OF the half century, thew will NO.
follow blind guides into what may be for tha,,'
a last ditch. 'n'iii