Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-11-07
THE HOUSE OF LORDS.
A Notable Speech by the Lord
Chief Justice of ENGLAND.

A Notable Speech by the Lord
Chief Justice of England.
In responding at the Cutters Feast to
toast to the House of Lords, Lord Cole
ridge said, among other things 81
have not disguised-why should / dis
guise THAT l am Of opinion, with thir-
teen years experience of its working,
and Of the renewed flow of things that
goes on all around us, that it cannot be
expected that the House of Lords, any
more than any other institution in this
country, should be saved forever from
change and reconstruction. But l will
be equally frank, and l would say l do
hope that it will be dealt with in the
way of change and reconstruction, and
not by the way of abolition. In every
free country, 1 believe-I am sure in
most-it is found necessary, or it is be.
lieved to be necessary, to have q second
chamber in the legislative machinery of
the State, and l am certain that in the
English House of Lords there is the most
admirable material for the reconstruction
OF the chamber. The English House of
Lords never did want, and it does not
now want, grand, commanding ability.
A debate in which-to 20 no further
than four names-a debate in which the
Duke of Argyll. Lord Salisbury and
Lord Selbourne and the Bishop of Peter
borough mingled, is thing, let me tell
you, worth mans while to go many
miles to listen to; and we find that still
to great men of all sorts, to great con-
tractors, to great brewers, TO great
bankers, to great men of commerce, to
great soldiers, and, may l say, exclud-
ing myself, great lawyers; not only to
men who are remarkable for nothing but
the number of acres and quality of stock
or consols they may own, the position of
seat in the House of Lords is still an
object of ambition, and | would under
take to say, speaking with all reverence
in presence of some of the foremost men
in the House of Commons, that a man
might take up fifty men out of the House
of Lords who, man for man, would be
the equals in ability, with perhaps one
enormous exception that will occur to
every one, on whichever side of politics
he may sit, absolute equals of any fifty
men in the House of Commons. 1t is
not in eloquence; it is not in learning
and ability; it is not in knowledge; it is
not in high character and noble ambition;
nay, it is not in certain sense in cur
rency with affairs that the House of
Lords is deficient. The House of Lords
has lost its weight in the country, il it
has lost it, from other causes, because,
unfortunately, vast majority of the
peers never come near the House of
Commons at all, and never take any part
in its business; because those who do
take part come there because they choose
to come, and are responsible to no one
but themselves, and it is impossible,
with all their ability, that they should
not, to some extent, lose touch Of the
people, and get out of harmony with the
times. But let this be altered. Let men
sit in the House of Lords because some.
one thinks them fit to sit there; let them
be sent there by some mode of choice,
some mode of election-I do not say
directly from the people, but
speaking roughly and offhand, and l
pray you remember, after dinner-by
some such system as is so successful in
the American Senate, and will venture
to say that the English House of Lords
would not be only the most ancient, the
most venerable, the most illustrious
body, but one of the most powerful and
most popula, legislative assemblies which
the world has ever seen. But do abolish
the House as law court, in which re.
gard it is of no credit to itself and no use
10 any body else. Albany Law Journal.