17 NOVEMBER 1894, Page 18

Lord Rosebery, on Wednesday, made a long speech in St.

Andrew's Hall, Glasgow, a great part of which was devoted to answering some rather extravagant remarks of Lord Salisbury's as to the independent character and im- partiality of the House of Lords. It is of course true that the House of Lords has been much more Liberal than it is now; but then it is also true that when it was more Liberal than it is now, the Liberal leaders were a good deal more conservative than the Liberal leaders are now,—the late Lord Aberdeen and Lord Palmerston, for instance, having been very much nearer to the late Sir Robert Peel than they were to Mr. Gladstone or Sir William Harcourt or Lord Rosebery. Of course a violently Radical leader is sure to produce a re- actionary effect on the House of Lords. None the less, it is indisputable that the House of Lords would be a much better drag on dangerous revolutionary projects than it is now, if it contained a larger infusion of democratic feeling.. Lord Rosebery's reply to the contention of Lord Salisbury,. that the House of Lords is not a mere Committee of the Con- servative party, was the best part of his speech, and indeed the only sound part of it.