The sun., 1892-09-19

party be from the outset "the bill. tho
whole bill. and nothing but the BILL" With
such programme he Is confident that the
party could DO maintained In discipline.
and even In enthusiasm. and that the meas
ure could be swept through the House OF
Commons before Easter. That Is the way.
he ponts out. In which business Is done In
France and 1t is also the way In which 1t Is
done in England when the Unionists are In
power and have formed the resolution to
coerce Ireland.
Il Is with the rod OF closure which was 30
lately welded by a Tory hand that the ex-
FOUNDER OF radical opinion would drive the
Home Rule bill through the House OF Com
mons. Now for the next stepi In the process.
That the House OF Lords will begin by
throwing out the measure Mr.. HARRIBoN
takes for granted. but he reminds us that
the Tories have also furnished convenient
precedent for bringing the hereditary
legislators to their knees. Mr.. GLAD
STONE Is ct liberty to follow the ex-
ample set by Lord BoLINaBRoKR and
swamp the adverse majority In the
House OF Lords under a Wholesale
creation OF new Peers. Nay. he can. II he
please, confer the Peerage on five hundred
chimney sweeps. or. as Lord SUNDERLAND
suggested to Lord CHURon1hh In the reign
OF JAMES H., call up regiment OF Lie
Guards into the upper House. The fact is.
as Mr.. HARRISON perceives. that turning
point has been reached In English consti-
tutional history at which the House OF
Peers must do exactly rs the Crown has
done-surrender In practice its theoreti-
cal veto-or else suffer what the
Crown has suffered and risk rcvolu-
tion. 1t is idle for men to talk OF tech
nical rights unless they recognize that
there are technical rights all around. 1t is
true that tho Peers have technical right
to reject any and all bills. But the Minis
try In power also has technical right to
advise the Grown to create Peers enough to
insure the subserviency OF the upper
House. Will it be snid that the Grown
in turn has technical right to re-
fuse assent to such swamping OF
tho Peerago? Let that be admitted; but il
Queen VICTORIA should be rash enough to
exercise that technical right. then the
House Of Commons may fall back on a
technical right OF its own which has never
since the Restoration been disputed. the
right namely. to refuse supplies, suspend
the civil llSb, anu aTTeSI tuo LudCuiueiy Vi
government. On the whole. therefore. 1t
would seem that the less said by the Union
sts.about technical rights the better.
The more the temper Of the English Rad
icals is concerned. the more imprudent 1t
appears for the House of Lords or the Crown
to provoke friction by attempting to thwart
the peoples determination expressed
through majority Of the House OF Com
mons. 1t will take but few smart rubs to
obiteratc the traces of theatric gliding
which still set off the merely decorative
parts OF the British political structure. Not
by defving. but by obeying quickly
and gracefully the popular will can
the House of Lords and the Crown
manage to eke out their existence for
some decades longer. TO those who appre-
ciatc the force OF the drift toward democ-
racy. and who at the same time have lik-
ing for conservative institutions. 1t must
seem grave misfortune that there are at
present so few Liberals In tho House OF
| Lords. and that the occupant Of the throne
| is m aged and not superlatively gifted lady
whose notions Of her own importance are
fifty years behind the times.