The Irish standard., 1893-09-02
THE UPPER HOUSE

THE UPPER HOUSE
Continued From First Page.
makes % row. It will oppose or post
pore, or mutilate or emasculate any
measure of genuine reform it it seems at
all likely that such course can be taken
with impunity. Therefore one cannot
even have the respect for the House OF
Lords which he might have for impla-
cable and fearless fanaticism, or even
implacable and fearless sel6shness. The
House of Lords will not fight. It sur
renders. but does not die. One session
the peers through their majority gave
forth their non possumus. They cannot
hear Of the proposed change. Personal
| conscience and national honor alike for
bid them. To pass such bill would
make them accomplices in the destruc-
tion of England's safety and England's
glory. The voices of the past, the pres
ent and the future alike forbid the
House of Lords to sanction such legisla-
ton. The dead would arise from be-
meath their marble tombs and their mon
umental brasses to forbid such sacrl-
flee of all that English tradition holds
most dear. So the heroic attitude is
maintained for one session. Then the
next session comes and the House OF
Lords will pass the very same bill with
out murmur of serious dissent or OBJ
iection-and will leave. the illustrious
dead to sleep beneath their marble tombs
and their monumental brasses.
I think if I were Liberal prime min
lister would put my foot down, and re-
fuse to allow any of my important meas
ures to be tinkered and spoiled by the
House of Lords. think I would let the
bill be postponed for once, and give the
country to clearly understand why it was
postponed. would throw on the House
of Lords the full responsibility for it's
postponement. A lesson Of that kind
would cure the House of Lords very
soon of it's passion or spelling good
measures.
Ireland has, Of course, been always
happy hunting ground for the House of
Lords. 1t has been much safer to spoil,
or even altogether reject, good bill for
Ireland than to spoil or reject good bill
for E gland. Until within the last few
years Ireland had hardly any strong
friends in Parliament. The House of
Lords might cut any capers it liked
where merely Irish legislation was con-
cerned. No outcry loud enough to reach
the ears of the big British public could
we'll be made over rejected measure to
improve the condition of. the Irish labor
ers, or to establish in Ireland satisfac-
tory method for the registration Of votes,
or to amend the hideous defects and
anomalies of the Irish grand jury sys-
tenn. Therefore, the history OF legisla-
tion records ar unbroken succession of
annual instances to show what the lords
have done with any and all attempts
made by Irish members of Parliament to
introduce domestic reforms into their
own country.
There are reforms still unaccomplishea
for the Irish governing system which
have been tho subject Of legislation dur
ing all the sessions of Parliament that l
can remember. These measures were
brought in every year as a matter of
course-as a matter Of duty. At first
they were rejected by the maj ,rity in
the House of Commons. Then, by itera
tion of fact and argu nent, they justified
themselves and commended themselves,
as every measure of genuine reform al
ways does in the end, to the House Of
Commons-the representative assembly,
which is compelled to be in touch with
the nation. Then came another and
familiar stage in. the movement, The
measures accepted by the House of Com
mons we're invariably rejected, year after
year, by the House of Lords. Many of
them remain in that position to this
very day. They were not important
enough, in the imperial sense, to arouse
national enthusiasm and to provoke by
their rejection national clamor, and the
peers did not care three straws for any
outcry made by the Irish people.
But the Irish people have gained what
Wordsworth calls 'great allies" in Eng
land. They have carried the best Eng
lish craftsmanship with them, and, bet
ter even than that, they have won to
their side the whole liberalism and radi-