Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-27

i i& SAl lords!" cried the Liberals
III saGE and Laborites during the par
is EE liamentary campaign. Down
III Ppl with Socialism, was the re-
lsssgz1E1l tort of the Conservatives
and Unionists. The Liber-
ais tried to keep the political battle
/ centered upon this one issue-the Con-
/ servatives devoted their energies TO
| directing the public interest to other
problems.
The house of lords was clearly an
| issue in the campaign, however, ana
it is probable that its fate is sealed.
one Of the peculiar features of this
peculiar campaign has been that each
! party possessed an issue which seems
certain of ultimate success, regard
less of the results now. The Liberal
| campaign against the house of lords
will end, eventually, in the abolition
or reform of that chamber; and the
| Conservative advocacy of tariff reform
cannot fail, eventually, to have It's Ell
feet upon the British fiscal system
Down with the lords!" became the
battle cry of the Liberals when the
house of lords, despite the accepted
theory that the lords had no right to
interfere in financial legislation, re
iected the Lloyd-George budget IN NO
vember by attaching All amendment
calling for dissolution of parliament
and a general election. Although the
lords made much of this referendum
and pleaded it's popular appeal in re-
ply to all charges of unconstitutional
action. thew and their supporting party
tried sto make the election turn on
other issues.
"Down with the lords!" was shouted
from every stump, was blazoned on
every wall, was preached from many
pulpits, was reiterated in every Lib
l.eral newspaper. But it is still true
that an Englishman dearly loves
slord. and the campaign did not create
one tenth the excitement along THIS
line that might be expected by re-
publican American.
The house of lords is an institution
entirely unique in the world, since it
is the last legislative chamber in
which membership is held by right of
heredity. Every other monarchy on
earth has abolished this principle, for
although in several European and
Asiatic states there is an upper house
composed exclusively of mobiles, yet
the voting members must be selected
with a view to their personal fitness
for the business of legislation.
The house of lords has, under the
British form of government, three dis
tinct theoretical functions The peers,
are, first, a council of advice to the
sovereign; second, the supreme court
of appeal in all legal matters; and,
third, branch of the legislature.
Their function as u council of advice
to the crown is a mere fiction, that
office having been usurped centuries
ago by the privy council, which in
turn lost it's power by gradual stages
during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries to the cabinet of ministry,
which still retains all the power to
advise and control the sovereign.
AS the supreme court of appeal, the
622 peers of the house Of lords have del
egated their powers to four law lords,
and, cllriously enough, these four are
rot properly peers at all. The 622 lords
not having the necessary legal knowl-
edge, industry or patience to attend
to this business, it has become Gus
tomary to appoint great lawyers as
| life peers, their titles not descending.
| These law lords sit as the supreme
court of the United Kingdom, and have
the same relation to the Jurisprudence
of England that the supreme court of
| the United States bears to that of
America.
Yet there is not a case which comes
to this highest court in which any or
all Of the 622 peers might not sit if
they were so disposed, All that pre-
vents their packing the supreme court
In this manner is precedent and a GUS
tom, but it is not so old nor is it con-
sidered so sacred as that other con-
vention and custom which was disre-
garded when the lords rejected the bud
| get.
| The house of lords consists of three
princes of the blood royal two arch
| bishops, twenty-five dukes, twenty
three marquises, 124 earls, forty
viscounts, twenty-four bishops, 1856
barons, all of England. In addition
there are sixteen representative Scotch
| peers chosen by the whole body of
Scottish peers; twenty-eight repre-
| sentative Irish peers chosen in the
same manner, and the four legal life
! peers This makes grand total of 622.
| OF this number not more than a hun
dred, at the outside have anything to
do with the business of the house on
ordinary occasions The majority of
the peers never visit the house at all,
unless summoned for some unusual
| occasion like the coronation of a new
sovereign or the rejection of a bill sent
up from the house of commons. When
1.-THE Conservative party is in power the
lords do nothing. The bills from the
house pass without question. When
the Liberals come into power the lords
awake to activity, and they have man
aged, in one way and another, to block
or I1ntilata poO61U DOrtiOI1- Of n