Sir: It has always been obvious that Paul Johnson is
no real Conservative, being much too intemperate and zealous. Never- theless, to observe him week after week manfully perverting the bad passions of Jacobinism into the service of the Right has inspired many of your readers. Now we find those same passions are once more master of his head, and they use it to demand the destruction of a colourful, ancient institu- tion.
I refer to the House of Lords. This cham- ber has further justifications, of course. It brings an assured and expert hand to the refinement of Government Bills. It hedges the monarchy about with majesty. It is the bright motive to unhonoured merit. People are content to sneer at its hereditary ele- ment particularly, but the Lords herein excels all other live bodies in the splendour of the reward it may thereby confer. Truly, it crowns a lifetime's achievement. That it is 'undemocratic' need concern only the doc- trinaire, impractical prigs of the Centre and the Left.
Such posturing fails to remark that the liberty of the people is protected best when the lightning of their opinion is conducted through a stable constitution. Contrary to fashionable 'thought', the British constitu- tion is the most stable in the world. It is traced by the stilus of memory, and in their blood, upon the hearts of Englishmen and women. In the perpetuation of this state of affairs, the present second chamber plays a vital role.
I would ask if it is necessary for every ele- ment of government to be 'democratic'? Is it not obvious that the will of the enfran- chised as embodied by the Commons is all- powerful, but well-advised, and indeed obeyed, by the venerable institutions which surround it? Would not a Senate simply embody privilege of a duller stripe, being of the same class, but minus the pride, author- ity and splendour of its predecessor? Might it not easily be quite as corrupt as the Lords, if not more? And finally, being elected, wouldn't it demand greater power, and bring the brisk execution of business to a halt?
On second thoughts, Mr Johnson is no Jacobin. He's a dreary July monarchist, and shall, I trust, henceforth be known as 'Paul Egalite.
S.J. Denis
Gardencote, Bere Court Road, Pangbourne, Berkshire
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