The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-03

same Is that which English political usage
even more than the British constitution
has put at the discretion Of the House ef
Lords. The president by mis- veto sends
back message for reconsideration. This
Is al that the House of Lords can now do,
and only in exceptional circumstances do
the Peers venture to do so much. When
once the action Of the House of Lords has
been seriously called in question. 1t may
be taken Cor granted that it will not he re-
peated. With the exception of Lord
Derby and Lord Salisbury. who stand for
the ancient families Of Stanley and Cecil,
and can trace their lineage back to Lord
Derby. who deserted Richard the Third at
the battle of Bosworth, and to Lord Bur-
leigh. the famous minister of Queen Eliza
beth. the few able men in the House of
Lords have been promoted from the Com
mons.
During the last hundred years the
English peers who have been great
statesmen have nearly all been distin-
tinguished commoners, promoted for
great legal abilities or exceptional poll
itical talents and services. Out of twenty.
eight dukes, Argyll alone rises above
mediocrity. The day is coming when
this wooden-headed, obstructive, heredi-
tary, non-elective legislature will be ex-
tinguished and perhaps replaced by an
elective body like our American Senate.
or that of France, for the radical Liberals
call every year with increasing loudness
for the obliteration of the House of Lords.
The beginning Of the end was made
when the last great enlargement
OF suffrage was carried in Eng
land, which admitted 100000 Of
agricultural laborers to the ballot. Since
this victory the influence Of the peer, the
parson and the squire has steadily van.
ished. In 1886, including the five royal
princes, the twenty-six bishops, the
twenty-eight representative Irish peers,
and the sixteen delegate Scoth peers, the
members of the House of Lords, hereditary
and representative, numbered $40. In
shape of pay, under various disguises,
these $40 privileged persons draw from the
public treasury not less than $3.50. 900 .
year. They own collectively 15,312, 900
acres Of land, whose annual rental does
not fall short of s64, 1906 Some 1900
livings in the Church of England belong
to lay members of the House of Lords, and
7,155 relatives of peers are In the public
pay.
The English radical Liberals in their
standing indictment of the House of Lords
cite its infamous record of legislation OBJ
structive to popular liberty and humane
government, and will never rest content
until history repeats itself by obliteration
of the House of Lords which was done by
resolution of the House of Commons
February 8, 1649. Since victoria's success
sion the present royal family has cost the
nation STA, 1915. Up to this time the
Prince Of Wales has drawn altogether
Sic, 900 and his debts are estimated at
half Is much again. The mother Of the
Emperor of Germany received 81, 425, 900
from the British taxpayers, the Duke Of
Edinburgh s2.5O0,0OO, the Duke of Con-
naught 81. S36, 900, the Princess Christian
$4,000, the Duke of Albany $970, 900 and
the Princess Louise $660,000
The radical Liberals cite all these facts
and frankly advertise their purpose to get
rid Of the House of Lords as soon as pos
sible, and when that is done the whole
royal establishment will soon follow the
lords into private life. The drift of En-
glish politics is beyond Gladstone, who
has always stood by the royal establish
ment and the aristocracy, but when Glad
stone disappears the English radicals, like
Labouchere, will rule the Liberal party,
cratic establishment is extinct as privi-
legged, non-elective, hereditary political
and legislative power in the state.