THE HOUSE OF LORDS: LIFE PEERAGES. Pro ass Eons. or
taw ..E1P.Cf ATOR:1 SIR, It is not always realised how soon the creation of life Peers, and of life Peers only, would modify the character of the House of Lords to a great extent. Of the existing peerages of the United Kingdom, putting aside the Law Lords—the present life Peers—sixty.four will become extinct or be merged in other peerages at the death of the present holder. Six more will pass to ladies, three more will go into abeyance among co-heiresses. It is rather brutal to say so to their Lordships, but in all human probability seventy of them will be extinct in about thirty years. If life Peers were created at the same rate as hereditary Peers have been made of late, the extinct seventy would be replaced by a larger number, who, being created ad hoe, would mostly sit and vote. Thirty years will not seem " soon" to ardent reformers. It is about the time in which the Parliament of De Montfort was transformed into the Parliament of Edward I., less than the time which transformed the Monarchy of the Restoration into the Monarchy of the Act of Settlement, less than the time which transformed the Parliament which voted Catholici Emancipation into the Parliament which voted Irish Die. establishment. I do not say that the change would certainly be good, but it would be efficacious before long.—I am, Sir, Ac.,
St. Catherine's, Ouildford.
H. B. MALDEN.
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