Lord Kimberley's opinion on a crisis is often worth atten-
tion. He does not refine, he is perfectly good-humoured, and he is not the least of an alarmist. His brother Peers, therefore,. might do worse than listen to the opinion which he gave at the Colston festival at Bristol on Thursday. He repudiated any idea of using menace,—mentioning, though, that he individually would much rather "play to the larger audience ;"—but held that an institution like the Lords could not be useful if it made itself the instrument of a party. That House was permanent ; and if the will of its majority were always to have effect, it could not discharge its functions. It must regard not only the opinions of its own Members, but those of the House of Commons and of the country at large. That is the truth which the Duke of Wellington never forgot, and which Lord Salisbury never remembers, and the neglect of which has produced the present agitation. The House, over-mastered by one strong will, has become a branch of the Tory Executive, and cannot, therefore, when Tories are not in power, perform any independent function at all. Whenever it allows any Liberal measure to pass, the majority of its members are taught to think they are neglecting their duties, and Liberal Government becomes practically impossible. There is, under such circum- stances, no working Legislature in existence.
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