Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-03-24
WHAT OF THE OLD
HOUSE OF LORDS
PRosALE OUTCOME OF AS.
OUTFITS DECLARATION OF
WAR ON THE PEERS.
A oNE-cHAMBER Government
iNToLERALE TO THE
COUNTRY.
a Business Man. in ondon Mail.

~NN-t@09 -1o4s III JuU0f2 MAIL.
What Is to be done with the
House of Lords? That is the cues
ton In every mouth, after the cloud
OF words with which on Friday
night Mr.. Asquith announced his in.
tention of waging war upon the peers.
To the plain business man it would
seem that he should have told the
country exactly what he proposed.
But this he did not do, and therefore
plain business men like myself are
left to fill the void.
Several proposals. have been made
by the would-be reformers of the
lords. The first was contained in
Sir Henry parliamentary
resolution of 1907 Under this, if the
peers rejected government meas
ure which had passed the house of
commons, private conference would
have been held between an equal
number of members of both houses.
If no result were reached at this CON
ference. the bill was to be reintro-
duced after the lapse of six months,
and passed rapidly, discussion of II
being confined TO new matter. A. Sec
ond conference was then to be held,
and If the peers still remained obsti-
nate, the bill was to be rushed through,
third time, with the intimation that,
if they cisapproved, it would be
passed over their heads A final
conference would have been held to
reach an agreement, and, failing SUCH
the bill would have become law.
The defect of this proposal was
that it virtually meant one-chamber
government, which the British people,
with their recollection of what hap
pened on the last occasion when a
single chamber was tried, during the
commonwealth, will certainly never
tolerate. A one-chamber govern
ment would be so unstable, so liable
to action which could not be calcu-
lated, that it would prove fatal to
commerce and business, the vital re.
quirement of which is that the future
snould De caiculADie.
The second proposal, put forward
this year by house of lords commit
tee, Is that the number of the house
should be reduced from $40 to 1888.
The 592 hereditary peers would elect
200 of their number and the rest OF
the house would have been made up
of elected bishops, peers who had
held high Office under the British gov
eminent or in the colonies, colonial
representatives. and fous life peers to
be summoned annually til the number
of such life peers reached forty.
The defect of this proposal lay in
the fact that it would not have sub
stantialy changed present conditions.
The house of lords would be some
what strengthened, as some few of
it's members who are not exactly
adornments of the senate would be
elected. But the real crux of the po-
sition, which is the permanent liberal
minority in the upper house, would
not be removed.
A third proposal has been put for
ward from time to time This is that
the house of lords should be abolished
and replaced by a senate. The sen
ate would be elected, but ON higher
franchise or different basis from the
lower house. Conditions would re-
semble those in France, where the
senate is an elective body, the mem
bers of which are chosen for nine
years, not all simultaneously. but
one-third every three years.
A senate on these lines would be
impossible in this country, because
no government could be assured of
commanding a majority slmulta-
neously liz both houses. The old