Mr. Fawcett made a good speech on Tuesday at the
Shore- ditch Town Hall, to a meeting of his constituents, on the pre- sent crisis. He repeated what he has often said before on the excuse for the action of the Lords in rejecting the Compensa- tion for Disturbance Bill in 1880, but repeated it on this occa- sion only to remind the meeting that he had not been an un- reasonable critic of the Lords in former years, and to enlist their respect for the censure which he bestowed on the act of last week. Mr. Fawcett was most anxious to avert the storm• which seems impending, not because he ignores the need of some reform in the Lords, but because he wants to postpone that question till after the character of the Redistribution measure has been fully and calmly considered by the country.. On the whole, we do not think that this reason for post- poning the consideration of the reform of the Lords is suffi- cient. The country is just as likely to discuss both reforms in a judicial spirit as it is to discuss either separately. It is said that an idle man is always much too busy for any out-of-the-way bit of work, but that a busy man can generally find leisure for it. So, when the country braces itself up for any serious task, it is rather better, instead of worse, prepared to undertake two such tasks than it would be to undertake one only. At all events, if we do not seize appropriate occasions for doing what has to be done, it will never be done at all. This is undoubtedly the appropriate occasion for insisting on a reform of the House of Lords.
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