New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-08-29
THE BRITISH CRISIS.
opnc .Nn COMMONS IN CONFLICT.


CONTRAST PRESENTED By LORD SALISBURY
.pr-rvr ArrrrrDp-rHE PEERS COUNTING CON-
FIIcr AND AGITATION THAT MAY RESULT Dig
AsrRoUsLY FOR THEN.
svpoN TIE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TAAooNn''
I LONDON. Aug 13.-In the modern history "a 'no
House of Lords there have been two grea' oii'o'
The first occurred at the passage OF the MS. noio
bill in 1892 Everybody knows what nnpFonou
then and how the Lords, who hatou tne pi.i, s~o
way and passed it rather than see 'po niis iu'.
nroynise 10 his Ministers and create new peers
norob In overcome the existing majority. III they
IA rot oiven way or if the KING had not
s,l6lled his promise, there would nave peen
revolution The people were determined on passing
The Reform bill somehow. The second crisis was ON
tho passing of the Corn Laws IN 1916 AGAIN inc
Lords stood out against measure oil free 1raoc'
which they then called, they now call the lrish
Land bill. % measure of coniscation. Again they
welded but yielded to inhIences of very different
sort from those which had brought about their sub
,p;saion in 1882. There were plenty of Peers IN
1ea6 who had not learned the lesson of 1882; who
did not then know that with the passage of the he
form bill the House of Lords, though untouched oy
statnte. had undergone q charge as radical as the
change effected by legislation In the constitution OF
the Commons.
Prior to the Reform BILL both the House of Lords
and the House of Commons were aristocratc assem-
Grown. they had become, though not in equal meas
nre the instruments by which the arstocracy OF
ENGLAND governed the country. They were i'll con-
flict seldom and never upon any Vital question:
After the Reform BILL the House of Commons became
what it had not been before representative body.
To speak more accurately, it had been representa-
tive before of small privileged class 1t became
representative then of q numerous class which had
some claim at that day to style itself the people
nlrap IF q
class BY the passage of the Reform bill this class
had triumphed over the aristocratc GLASS; and estnb
lisbed n House of Commons in its own image,
or in great part in its own image. The House
of Lords remained the House of Lords representative
of nothing but itself Ii had parted with the monop-
oily of political power. which it had before possessed
and which it welded in part directly part by its
privilege of returning controlling section OF the
House of Commons. Before that, it could reject
measures, money bills excepted, as freely as the
other House. and did reject them. The failure of its
attempt to reject the Reform bill destroyed its
power of rejecting absolutely and finally, any bill
whatever deceased to be House of coordinate and
coequal legislative functions, and became House
of which the chief legislative power may be defined
as O temporary veto. The Nation, or what then
passed for the Nation the middle classes having got
legislative House of their own, and the balance of
power having passed definitely from the arstocracy
the middle classes the Peers longer defeat
any measure on which the Nation had set its heart.
They could delay It, They could oblige the people
to put forth great effort in order to carry it, But
when the wish and determination of the people had
been sgniied in unmistakabe manner, whether
by repeatedly passing the same bill through the
lower House, or by popular agitation a great
scale, or by both, the Lords had choice but to
give way, and 60 through the formaty of ratifying
the resolution thus made known to them So great
effe ed llv IL
rect legislation, but as the result of legislation
another subject, was not at once perceived
cepted. Fourteen years after it had happened,
the majority of the Lords, as saying, had not
found it out, and were for asserting an obsolete
authority in resistance TO the Corn Laws which the
Nation had determined to pass. II happened, how
ever, that the Peer who then possessed a command
ing influence over his fellow-Peers, had sagacity
enough to discover the essential fact of the situa-
ton He was not statesman; he had little ac-
quaintance with the principles which guide, or
which ought to guide, political action he not
jurist orator; he was incapable of compre-
hending a theory abstract idea. But he had
the saving grace of common sense and this is what
he wrote in 1848 to brother Tory, the late Lord
Derby: Upon the important occasion and question
before the House. propose to endeavor to induce
them to avoid to involve (sic the country in the
additional difficulties of difference of opinion
possibly dispute, between the Houses on question
In the decision of which it has been frequently
asserted that their lordshlps had personal interest
which assertion, however false affecting each of
them personally could not be denied as affecting
the proprietors of land in general. l am aware of
the difficulty, but do not despair of carrying the
bill through You must be the best Judge of the
course which you ought to take, and of the course
most likely to conciliate the confidence of the
House of Lords. My opinion is that you should
yia fo xyota hat xyh oh
most to public order. and would be most beneficial
to the immediate interests of the countrvD
The writer of that letter the late Duke ORWELL
ington. 1t has not so far as know been quoted in
the discussion which has suddenly sprung up ON the
impending collision between the two Houses. But
If it had been written yesterday, ii could not be
more apt or more timely. The Lords are now at
issue with the House of Commons on a bill in which
it may be said even more truly, or more directly.
than of the Corn Laws, that their lordships have a
personal interest In the present case that interest
affects many of them individually; it directly
touches % proprietors Of Irish land in general
who ne .heless vote on it. 1t indirectly affects or
threa to affect they believe eyery propretor
of land in the United Kingdom and affects the
Peers moro than all Others because they are far the
largest body OF proprietors of land in the Kingdom
On q similar question, in a similar state of crcnm
stances, the Duke of Wellington's advice TO the
same House was to vote that " hich would tend
most to public ORDER and be most beneficial TO the
immediate interests of the country. The Duke was
then. though he had eifectuay and all but formally
severed himself from the Tory party he had once
led, the man whom the Lords had most confidence
in His advice was acted on the Corn Importation
bill was passed, and the House of Lords took a
fresh lease of life.
There is no man who to-day occupies the position
OF the late Duke of Wellington. But the political
successor of the late Lord Derby to whom the Duke