Lord Newton moved the second reading of the House of
Lords (Reform) Bill on Monday. The Bill, he explained, had five objects :—(1) To reduce the preponderance of the hereditary element by only allowing hereditary Peers to sit in virtue of certain special qualifications, or if elected as repre- sentative Peers, such election only to hold good for one Parliament; (2) to enable the Crown to appoint life Peers, not exceeding one hundred in number ; (3) to effect a reduction of the spiritual proportionate to that of the hereditary Peers ; (4) to assimilate the system of electing Scotch and Irish representative Peers to the system proposed by the Bill for the English Peerage ; (5) to enable any hereditary Peer who does not desire to become a representative Peer or to sit in the House of Lords to become a candidate for the House of Commons.
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