The morning call., 1894-03-06
DIGGING AT THE LORDS.

Ridicule often kills bad Institutions, and
causes foolish men to pause. wren solemn
argument, fortified by reason, is ineffect-
ual. Voltaire was more feared by the
monarchs of Europe than armies. They
trembled at his delicate satire, and were
CALLED by the laughter excited at their ex-
pense. The tongue and pen of Vnltaire
would have been feeble weapons had their
majesties and their institutions and lyran-
MES not been vulnerable, but in proper
ton to their folly his scoffing exposures
were wisdom with a sharp point. The
English House of Lords is on its trial as
an institution. 1t has long been infam-
ously bad politically. and its sins of COM
mission have now reached climax when
the patience and forbearance of a nation
ceases to be virtuOus. One of the most
telling bits of criticism and ilustration
on the absurdity of maintaining chamber
OF hereditary legislators. promiscuous and
feeble intellectually. has come from Max
O'Rell IN. BlOuei), who Is as we'll known
in America as in England.
The humorist says the lords spiritual
and temporal are like the French aris-
tocracy in Voltaire's time. The Duke of
LauZan elected Voltaire from box at the
Theatre Francois for which the famous
writer had duly paid. When the case was
argued in court the counsel for the Duke
took very high standard of Indignation.
'Whatw said he, sis it NJ. de Voltaire
who dares to plead against the Duke de
LauZan, whose great-grandfather was the
first on the walls of La Rochelle. whose
grandfather took many cannons from the
Dutch al Utrecht, whose father captured
two standards from the English at FOn-
tenOy, whose -" Here V0ltaire inter-
rupted. Excuse me-" he said, IL am not
pleading against the Duke of LauZan who
was first at Rochelle, nor against the Duke
who took cannens from the Dutch, nor
against the Duke who captured the stand
ards at Fontenoy; l am pleading against
the Duke of LauZan who never captured
anything in his life except my box at the
Theatre Francois"
This is the case against the peers in a
nutshell. With the exception of a half
dozen they are all Dukes of Lauzan, strut
ting about on the eminence of the dead
Wisdom and bravery in the past are not
continued by Providence to heads of fami-
lies in succeeding generations. As con-
sequence of the hereditary principle
minus qualifications which 10 the nature
of life cannot be hereditary, the lords are
mostly a stupid, unprogressivP, narrow
body of landlords, utterly incompetent to
judge of the wants of a nation. If they
were an elected body the responsibility for
their stupidity and hatred of change and
reform would rest with the people, but the
people have nothing TO do with the peers
except that they permit them TO exist as an
Obstructive evil-wnrking second chambe
almost perpetually in the wrong on every
vital movement.
Max " hell quotes a scathing passage
from John Bright's speeches on the House
of Lords. Bright was very humane man
and opposed to capital punishment. He
showed that up TO the reign of George
there were sixty-seven offenses punish
able with death. By the end of George
HIS reign 156 additional crimes were
added to the capital punishment list
Yet, as the peoples orator pointed out,
there is no in stance in which the Church
# England. with its bishops in the House
Of Lords, raised its voice In favor of a
more mercitul code or condemnation of
this frightful cruelty. The pressure
which swept away these atrOcious laws
came, as it always does. not from the
peers or legislators or governments, but
from the people. led or by thinkers
Bright thought Voltaire justified in saw
ing that the English were the only people
who murdered by law. The peers are
now on their defense, but down they must
90 as hereditary legislators in the march
of progress