Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-07-26

Of entrance to a QUARREL but, being in,
BeAr.t TINT the OnpnseG NAV beMare Of The

q
Beart, that the opposed may beware of thee.
1 should have wished to preserve this silence
to the eLd, but some declarations made in this
House have been 50 explicit that / do not feel
authorized so to preserve 1t. / wish principally
10 point out that we have acted suitably 10 those
words of Shakespeare, Beware Of entrance TO
a quarrel" If there was anything suggested to
Us not incompatible with the objects We had in
view we did not refuse it, for the sake of avoid
ing such quarrel, which | should regard Us a
calamity gTieYous to the country, bringing into
question the parliamentary institutions under
which we have lived so long, conflict which,
if there are in the country men in whose Opin-
ion such conflict may be good thing it was
our solemn duty to take every reasonable means
Of avoiding.
1t is not thinkable that the threat OF
Labouchere or the motion of Mr.. Ander-
son " that an unreforned hereditary House
of Lords is incompatible with wise legis-
lation, nor yet the menace of the Premier
himself, will have the effect of awakening
grave fears among the Lords for the in
tegrity Of aristocratic institutions. Sir Stat
ford Northcote, in responding to Mr.. Glad
stone, read h. n the lines when he said :;
That speech was not a speech upon the merits
or the dement's OF the franchise bill. II was u
speech upon the question whether the House of
tUre Of this country. II was q speech upon the
question whether the House of Lords is to be at
liberty to examine and to vote upon and TO take
any part in the legislation which affects the
Constitution of the country; or whether the
House of Lords is bound, at the Will of a major
ity OF the House OF Commons. or something
even worse than that-at the will of an imperi-
Gus Minister-tO listen 10 threats, and, affected
by those threats, TO refuse TO do the duty which
lies upon them.
With the Resembling of Parliament
three months hence, if there is dissolu-
ton this month, there may be reason
ably looked for a renewal Of the debate on
the issue now squarely before the English
people whether there shall be a shearing
of power from the Lords. II all indicates
that the Struggle of 1866 is to be revived
and possibly all the disorder of that period
renewed And the result must be adj
vancement, rs it was then. The extension
of the right Of suffrage must prevail and
in The end the upper house OF the Legisla-
ture viii be reformed Nevertheless, the
resolution Of I.abouchere is in advance Of
the day. The Lords are not to be tumbled
down by resolution. The man does not
live to-day who will see the house stripped
of It's prerosatiyes. The Peerage is part
of the grain Of the English fabric, and is
not 10 be cut out in day. The aristocratic
spirit is a part of the nationality of Eng
land. Ii is too closely woven into the fiber
of her social system to suffer speedy polit-
ical enforcement from legislative privi-
leges.
But if Mr.. Gladstone. irritated at the OBJ
stinacy of The Lords, should pronounce
explicitly against them, the day Of the
downfall of the upper house would be
fastened, and the first to be deposcd would
unques6onably be the ecclesiastical Lords,
against whom the prejudice Of the people