Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1907-05-02
THE HOUSE OF LORDS
/ CHECKS 1T HAS RECEIVED AT THE
HANDS OF THE COMMONS.

The Long Parliament Put the Peers
Out of Business Altogether For
Number of Years - BoIingbrOI<e's
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
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 a 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
drastic nature as this, of course.
Various ministries. finding that the
peers were unwilling to pass their pro-
posed bills, have resorted 70 the threat
to create enough new peers to swamp
the house of lords. These new peers
would, of course, have been pledged
beforehand to vote for the ministry
creating them.
In I'LL the prime minister of the
day, the daring and unscrupulous Vjs-
count BOlingbroke, was anxious to ter
inmate 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. 1t was neces-
sary at that time that lords and COM
mons should agree to treaty before
1t would become valid. The commons
assented to the treaty, but the lords
dcNlblt tN lilbl lliCN NOuld nave hOAAC
of it and that the war must go on,
whereupon Bolingbroke coolly but
firmly informed them that, rather than
see himself defed by them, he would
create a whole army of new peers to
vote for the treaty.
The story goes that he had regi-
ment of the Life guards paraded under
~ 4 g H. ,NpI lrI
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
bill bitterly
Until then they had been practically
an oligarchy, with all the real power
In their hands. The franchise had been
so limited that only rich men, and gen.
orally only the nominee Of some great
nobleman, could get into parliament
The reform bill altered that. 1t gave
the smaller men a chance. The lords
expressed their deliberate intention of
wreckiDg the bill
Earl Grey retorted by extorting from
King William IV.-who didn't like re-
form bills, but dared not oppose the
wish of the nation for fear Of a revo-
lution-permisslon to call up to the
house of lords 40 many new peers as
should be necessary to carry his bill.
The mere threat was enough for the
lords. They had no wish to see theif
order made cheap and ridiculous, as
would have been the case had peers
become as plentiful as blackberries.
1t used TO be the custom In the Brit
fish army for all officers commissions
to be purchased. That is, an officer In
stead Of getting into the army by
means of a competitive examination
and rising by merit, came straight
from school, without knowing anything
Of the new duties he was about to as
sumo, and had q commission bought
for him. After that, instead of being
promoted as reward for his services,
he used to buy each promotion.