We are always being called on to pity somebody, and
now it is the eldest sons of Peers who raise the melancholy wail. Lord Wolmer, Mr. Brodrick, and Mr. Curzon, all heirs to Peerages, complain in the Nineteenth Century that they are all liable to the political guillotine, which nearly sent Mr. Pitt to the House of Lords, snapped the career of Lord Althorp, sent Lord Hartington out of the House of Commons, and keeps Lord Salisbury and Lord Rosebery out of their proper places. They desire, therefore, that every eldest eon who inherits a Peerage should be allowed to decide, either for one Parliament or for life, whether he will accept it or continue to sit in the House of Commons. As we have repeatedly defended their plea, we need say nothing about it except that they have missed their strongest argument. What earthly right, on democratic principles, has the Legislature to tell a body of electors that it shall not elect a particular man ? The choice of the people ought to be a fall qualification; and if Lambeth to-morrow likes to send up the Archbishop of Canterbury, as it very probably would like, the Archbishop is the rightful representative. How the members who fought for Mr. Bradlaugh, while he was disqualified by law, get out of that argument, we are unable even to imagine.
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