Imperial Valley press and the Imperial press., 1907-03-09
THE HOUSE OF LORDS
CHECKS IT HAS RECEIVED AT THE
 HANDS OF THE COMMONS.

NumDeF OA AEtANH - Way with the Noble Lords.
 There is an idea in the minds of very many persons that the British house of lords is supreme and can do pretty well what it pleases. This, however, is a mistake. On several notable occasions their noble lordships have been para lyzed and have got very much the worst of it in stormy arguments with the gentlemen of the house of com. mons.
 The first occasion on which this hap pened was when the peers ventured to differ with the long parliament, which was at the time engaged in life and death struggle with Charles l. The commons on this occasion wasted no valuable time in talking, but promptly abolished the lords altogether and turned them, archbishops, dukes, belt ed earls and all the rest of the gor- geous coroneted crowd, into the street The gilded chamber was vacant
 For half dozen years or so the country got on without any house of lords.
 All the checks the house of lords have received have not been of such q drastic nature as this, of course.
 Various ministries, finding that the peers were unwilling to pass their pro- posed bills, have resorted to the threat , to create enough new peers to swamp l, the house of lords. These new peers would, of course, have been pledged beforehand to vote for the ministry creating them.
 F In I'll the prime minister of the | day, the daring and interruptions Wis count Bolingbroke, was anxious to ter minate the desolating and ruinous war with France, which had been raging on and off for twenty years. To effect this purpose he had drawn up the treaty of Utrecht. It was neces- sary at that time that lords and con- mons should agree to treaty before Nit would become valid. The commons Sassented to the treaty, but the lords declared that they would have none I of it and that the war must go on, Bwhereupon Bolingbroke coolly but firmly informed them that, rather than see himself defied by them, he would create whole army of new peers to vote for the treaty.
 The story goes that he had regi- ment of the Life guards paraded under the windows of the house of lords and threatened to make every trooper into a noble lord if driven to it. He did make twelve new peers, and then the lords gave in.
 The Liberal government of 1882, with Earl Grey as prime minister, used the same threat They wished to pass the first reform bill. The lords hated this pill bitterly.
 Until then they had been practically m oligarchy, with all the real power their hands. The franchise had been 50 limited that only rich men, and gen. orally only the nominee of some great lobleman, could get into parliament
 The reform bill altered that. It gave he smaller men chance. The lords Expressed their deliberate intention of vrecking the bill.
 Earl Grey retorted by extorting from King William lN-who didn't like re- form bills, but dared not oppose the wish of the nation for fear of revo- ution-permission to call up to the Eouse of lords as many new peers as hould be necessary to carry his bill.
 The mere threat was enough for the brds They had no wish to see their rder made cheap and ridiculous, as 5oud have been the case had peers ecome as plentiful as blackberries.
 It used to be the custom in the Brit
 h army for all officers commissions D be purchased. That is, an officer, in tead of getting into the army by beans of competitive examination nd rising by merit, came straight 'Om school, without knowing anything
 the new duties he was about to as
 lme, and had a commission bought br him. After that, instead of being
 'omOted as a reward for his services,
 used to buy each promotion.
 If he had no money his chances of
 eing promoted were about a thousand
 one. The result was that officers
 ho had grown gray in the service and
 ught in many battles remained sub
 climates all their lives, while the sons
 wealthy families who had not seen
 quarter of their service jumped over
 air haodC Inv havinO thair way nur.