21 MAY 1831, Page 15

WILL THE HOUSE OF LORDS PASS THE REFORM BILL?

THE ablest and most influential of the " Conservative " journals takes, this week, the following notice of the House of Lords.

" The Democratic Convention is now nearly complete ; and thoroughly democratic it will be found to be, in spirit as well as constitution. Al- ready even before its legal birth, we find it preparing to grapple with the House of Lords, threatening, in the speeches of its future members, and in paragraphs, to treat the Upper House of Parliament as a court of re- gistration, bound to fiat its decrees without remonstrance, on pain of being dispensed with altogether, as a useless and burdensome appendage to the state machine. The Rouse of Lords will probably submit : unsup- ported by the vigorous assistance of the Crown, indeed, it MUST submit; and,. after the experience of the last three years, such support by the Crows of any existing institution is what we are rather to pray for than to, hope."

Yet, in the same day's Standard, under the head of "The De- legation Parliament and New Trustees of the Nation," there is a quotation from a provincial Conservative paper (Felix Fancy's Bristol Journal), in which we are rated for having uttered an opinion like to that which we now quote from the Standard. As our able contemporary has not thought fit to give his reasons for agreeing with us, we submit to him our reasons for believing that the House of Lords will pass the Reform Bill. Perhaps he will oblige us by acknowledging the courtesy. We like the Standard, on many accounts, but principally for the vigour, consistency, and honest wrath with which he has exposed the conduct of public men under the Boroughmongering system, and thereby helped to show the necessity of Reform. We are anxious, therefore, to maintain some friendly intercourse with him. The House of Lords must be considered in two points of view, —first, as an assembly of Hereditary Legislators, existing for the benefit of the whole Nation, themselves of course included ; and secondly, as an assembly partly composed of Boroughmongers, who have an interest separate from, and indeed opposed to, that of the Nation. Every member of the House of Lords, not a Bo- roughmonger, has the same interest as the rest of the Nation in putting an end to the system of boroughmongering. The whole House of Lords, in its only legitimate character, has this interest. But as every Boroughmonger, whether a lord, or a stockjobber, or a Jew contractor, is interested in the preservation of boroughmon- gering, it may be said that a portion of the House of Lords has an interest opposed to that of the Nation. Take this to be true with reference to Reform in the abstract, still the interest of the Bo- roughmonger Lord may be outweighed by the interest of the same person as an Hereditary Legislator ; and that this is the fact, is almost proved, by the great number of Peers who are willing to sacrifice their influence in the House of Commons, for the sake of gratifying and benefiting the Nation, of which they are a part. Besides, every Peer, not a Boroughmonger, has a peculiar interest in promoting*Reform, since he will thereby be placed on an equality with all his fellow legislators, instead of being, as hitherto, subject to those of them who administered the supreme authority by means of their influence in the House of Commons.

To recapitulate—All the members of the House of Lords, as He- reditary Legislators, will, in common with the Nation, gain by Reform: all the Peers, not Baroughmongm, have a peculiar in- terest in Reform: of those Boroughmongers who happen to be Lords, a majority prefer their interest as Lords—that is, the na- tional interest—to their interest as Boroughmongers. Conse- quently, the only opponents of Reform in the House- of Lords, will be some few dull or reckless men, who cannot perceive, or per- ceiving, will not adopt, the course which is most for their own advantage. It is in the nature of things—that is, of human mo- tives, of public opinion, and though last not least, of the press— that this small minority should continually decrease. Who doubts - that a large majority of the House of Lords will pass the Reform Bill ?

Perhaps the Standard will favour us with his reasons for con- cluding that the House of Lords will "submit." We never used the word submit ; nor would the use of it accord with our view of the probable conduct and the motives of the House of Lords. Can it be that the Standard yet harbours malice against the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for having passed the Catholic Relief Bill ? - We pause for a reply.