3 MARCH 1894, Page 2

In the House of Lords on Friday week, during the

debate on the Commons' amendments to the Lords' amendments to the Parish Councils Bill, the Duke of Devonshire raised the very interesting and momentous question of the limits within which the Upper House should use its powers. The Lords have, he said, two functions. The first was to suggest amend- ments. How far these amendments should be insisted on was, however, a matter of expediency rather than of policy. The second function was to act as a barrier against Bills disapproved of in principle not only by the Upper House, but by "large minorities, or perhaps even majorities, until it has been conclusively ascertained that they are in accordance with the settled determination and will of the people." In other words, the Lords' powers are advisory, plus the right to prevent legislation on momentous questions without that clumsy form of referendum known as an ad hoc Dissolution. Some people may think that this puts the power of the Lords too low; but it has this great advantage, that it is a view which the mass of the people will and do accept, and which, therefore, the Lords can be sure of maintaining. A larger claim may be sustained by an elective Second House,—hardly by an hereditary one. Lord Salisbury protested against the Duke's view with considerable warmth. An interpretation might be put on the Duke's canon which would deprive the Peers of all right of amending legislation, and would end by forcing them to reject, on the second reading, Bills disliked by them in part. Lord Salisbury could not end without his accus- tomed jeer. "The noble Duke has an idea that we have a right to a certain number of rejections, and that if we have more than a certain number at a certain time, we shall awake the indignation of our fellow-countrymen. This is something like the case of persons who are occasionally sent out to shoot stags in Scotland. They are allowed to shoot one, two, or three ; but they must not, in consequence, indulge them- selves in any opportunities that they may meet."