THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE OF THE LORDS.
91HE Lords have a farther time of grace allowed them; but 1 it is far from certain that they will use it well. The single evilattending the Compromise is the resulting danger that the Lords, seeing the agitation against their House die away, may fall into error both as regards its character and its extent. That agitation, they may rely on it, was of the most deadly seriousness, included a clear majority, not only of the legal nation, but of the middle-class, and had its rise in two feelings which not only will not pass away, but will be stronger in the new Parliament than in the old. One—possibly the most active—is a growing distaste for legalised privi- lege. The English people has never sought equality in the Continental sense, being at once free from the passion of envy, and indisposed to waste energy on the unattain- able; but it has an inner impatience of differences established by law, and steadily year by year it sweeps them away. The whole tendency of the legislation of the centnry has been in that direction, till at last the only great " privilege " remaining is the hereditary right of five hundred families, whatever their position, or character, or relation to politics, to veto without appeal the decisions of the Representa- tive body. That monstrous privilege has survived through a half-century marked by a steady progress towards Democracy, partly because it was historical, partly because it secured a supply .of experienced politicians, who silently protected their own Order, but chiefly because the people were never called upon to examine it with seriousness. The Lords never resisted on grave occasions ; and the British people watch the details of administration and law-making leas than any people in the world, bearing, for example, their enormous expenditure upon- armaments, and the comparatively small force they obtain for the money, with a composure born, no doubt, of courage, but born also of ignorance. Lord Salisbury's action compelled the necessary examination ; the position of the Upper House was examined, and it stands condemned as a mischievous anachronism, to be remodelled or removed at the finst convenient opportunity. Nothing was so striking during the entire movement as the unanimity of the people upon this subject. There was plenty of Conservatism displayed, much- dislike in- the counties for the enlargement of the suffrage, plenty of praise .showered on Lord Salisbury for employing his last instrument of war ; but there was no affection manifested for the Lords. The house- holders desired many and diverse things ; but, as Lord Shaftesbury predicted in 1867, the continuance of the Lords' veto-upon the national will was not among them. On the contrary, they spontaneously urged their leaders to adopt a more definite and destructive course. Had the question been submitted to the electors on the present suffrage, the House would have gone down ; and we need not say how much more resolved in the same direction the new electorate will be. Not only will it be much more numerous, and much more con- scious of- strength, but it will have, as each successive suffrage has-had, a stronger impatience of privilege, and it will come into power just when the charm of the Lords, the apparent existence of their House as of inherent right; has been dis- pelled; and it has been discovered that its continuance is not like that of a mountain or a sea, but is only a political question, like any other, to be decided like a franchise dispute or a Bill regulating patronage, on grounds of right and expediency combined. The new electors will certainly not bear with the Lords, if they find them in the way ; and to keep the House out of the way will need most careful piloting.
We doubt if that piloting will be found, for the steersmen will be in presence of at least three new sets of difficulties, all certain to impede easy progress, and all increasing with time. One not yet much noticed, except by observers, is the decline among the pilots themselves of interest in their labour. They groan under the task, and look often towards the boats. They do not care as they did, though the crew may, to arrive safe at the shore. The vessel has lost value in their eyes. What- ever be the cause, whether the decay of hope which marks modern aristocracies, or the increased charm of the central battle—which, as the issues grow greater and greater, is quite perceptible—or only that effluent influence from democracy which is modifying even creeds, and clerics, and scientific investigations, the fact is certain that the abler the Peer the more he wearies of the Upper House, the more he frets under its inevitable restraints, the more he sighs, as Lord Kimberley said the other day, "to play to the larger audience." As the campaign widens in objects it becomes more tiresome to be always in command of the reserve. A disposition to use the reserve too soon, to press forward to the front, to leave off waiting with one's back to the shot, and enjoy one exhilarating charge, will manifest itself more and more, and will produce new and greater dangers. This last charge, though it invigo- rated Lord Salisbury, nearly lost the army as well as the battle.. Then the temper of the Lords will undoubtedly be more tried by the new House of Commons, which will be more impatient of interference, more conscious of irresistible authority, more full of Democratic sentiment as apart from Democratic ideas. Its managers are certain to resent, much more fiercely than the older men have resented, the ruinous interference of the Lords, with non-political Bills, and Bills of secondary importance, and to insist that progress shall not be stopped, even when the people are not in insurrection to secure it. The new House will not bear such slaps in the face as the rejection of the Bill for the election of Irish Guardians ; and submissions will be required from the Lords when they are, as they think, well within their rights. Demos, like any other King, thinks. nothing small which trenches on prerogative. One of- the first acts of the new House will be to order an annual return of all Bills which pass the Com- mons, but are rejected by the Lords ; and on that return will be debates which will try the Lords' temper very severelyf so severely that if the House cannot follow the advice of the Duke of Wellington, and remember that it is powerless with= out the Commons, deadlocks will be incessant. And finally, the measures to come up will be of the kind which most widely separate the commonalty and the great property.. holders. The land is certain to be enfranchised, and the Peers of necessity wish its transfer fettered. They dread the pros. digality of their sons, and with reason. The law of intestacy will be revised in the Democratic direction ; and the Peers wish it to remain on the aristocratic basis. There will be an almost irresistible movement against urban leaseholds, which no Peer will cordially approve, and probably large changes in the amount and incidence of the Death- duties,—none of them changes acceptable, to the holders of large estates. County government will be transferred from the gentry to the ratepayers, after a struggle as fierce as the present one ; and with the right of governing the counties will disappear a system of assessment which now greatly pro- tects—beneficially, we are inclined to think—the historic houses. There are more difficult social questions yet behind, involved in the housing of the poor, the law of eviction, and possibly, the law of bequest ; and on all the Upper House will be so opposed at heart to the Lower, that if it adheres to its present pretension of being "a free House," that is, a House entitled to defy the House of Commons whenever its own inner opinion is outraged, collisions will be nearly inevitable. The two ideas of Democracy and Privilege cannot work side by side ; and privilege expects, with more reason than it is customary for Liberals to admit, to find its last stronghold and protection in the House of Lords. What are Lords for, if they will not defend privilege The great country gentry think even now that the Upper House has thrown away needlessly their control over the county elections ; and it will be constantly urged to fight, when fighting means defeat. It is vain to deny that to refuse these requests will to most Peers seem derogatory, and that the constant demands for self-effacement made upon men who already resent the neglect into which they have fallen, will produce a sense of humiliation ending ultimately in resistances which will force the statesmen to say, as the householders already say,— " Let this end." We shall not always have a Premier so in- disposed to organic change, or so exquisitely fair to the adver- saries who impede his work. The struggle will not arise until the next occasion arises, for it is not in the nature of the English people to foresee difficulties, and for a Session the Lords may sun themselves in the light of their own deeds ; but we do not believe the occasion can be averted for five years.
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