MR. PLIMSOLL'S APPEAL.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I am afraid Mr. Plimsoll does not appreciate the fact that our woes, in a political sense, arise from the assumption by the House of Commons of all the functions and authority of the State. As matters stand at present the power of the Crown (Veto) is practically annihilated. The House of Lords is paralysed, and it is assumed that the people have no rights, —that the Magna Charta, the Habeas Corpus, the Bill of Rights, and the Petition of Right, are worthless as dis- honoured Bills, and any law, no matter how unconstitutional, how base or foolish it may be, that a handful of Members can smuggle through the House after midnight with empty benches, or rush through anyhow with a snatch-majority or mere party vote, shall be binding not only upon thirty millions of people in this country, but if we include India and the Colonies, upon hundreds of millions of people. Sir, I cannot conceive anything more disgraceful, anything more dangerous, or anything more certain to end in the destruction of all that is best and best worth living for in this great country. What we want is a multiplication of checks upon all popularly elected bodies, from the House of Commons downwards,—a regal veto, or something analogous to the Presidential veto of the United States, to be exercised as ruthlessly ; a Second Chamber, strong enough to throw out without fear of con- sequence any measure of which it disapproves ; a written Constitution, as in America; and a power of referring obnoxious Acts of Parliament to a vote of the people, as in Switzerland. If we had these safeguards we might sleep in peace, but as things are at present we are living on the brink of a precipice, over which we may be blown at any moment. No institution, no person, no legal right, is safe; and citizens are actually afraid of possessing property or of letting it be known that they possess property, for fear they should be robbed of it by so•called representatives, who, owing to the exigencies of party, are compelled to vote against their conscience and con- viction, and, consequently, do not represent anything at all, not even themselves.—I am, Sir, &c., CHAS. BELL TAYLOR.
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