THE HEREDITARY PEERAGE
SIR,—I am so much an admirer of " Janus " that the temptation to have a tilt at him is irresistible, if risky! I fasten on his un-" Janus" like note on the New Year Honours List in last week's Spectator. I cannot accept the fantastic picture drawn therein of an effete hereditary Upper House. One has only to consult Hansard to be confronted by evidence that it is not the House of Commons that possesses a monopoly of " the best brains of the country " ; and any impartial assessment of the value of recent debates in both Houses would reveal impressive evidence that never has our House of Lords deserved higher commendation for the intrinsic merit attained in its discussions. If " Janus" would not only read the debates, but examine the division lists of the Upper Chamber, he would be hard put to . it to justify his prejudiced picture of degenerate nincompoops obstructing the legislative machine. , "A hereditary peer," he says, " can be guilty of any kind of vice, short of putting himself within reach of the criminal law, and manifest any degree of mental incompetence, short of putting himself within reach of the lunacy laws, and yet sit every day in the House of Lords, and vote against measures which some of the best brains in the country have devised and discussed in the House of Commons." When, and how often, has this happened? The admirable and refreshing criticism on Strachey by F. A. Simpson in your same issue would seem to supply the needed comment. " Possible? Of course it was possible, and one can always hope for the worst. And all that was necessary after all was to leave, so to speak, the bottle on the chiinley-piece for his readers to put their lips to it if so dispoged: with, it may well be, a sufficiently just estimate of their intelligence to be confident that most of them would swallow its contents whole."
To put M.P. after one's name is no certificate either of brains or integrity. Many a rogue has been an elected legislator. In the last war, Bottomley was seriously mentioned as being in the running for the Premiership, his popularity being unaffected by his notoriety.
On the whole, both Houses of Parliament do represent the best brains and the best characters in contemporary life, and I just don't believe in the degenerate offsprings of noble sires who sit every day in the House of Lords assiduously voting against measures received from the Commons!—Yours sincerely, REGINAI.D L. Swan'. 7 Huddlestone Road, Willesden Green, N.W. 2.
[" Janus " writes: I agree as to the high order of many of the discus- sions in the House of Lords ; but it will be foUnd that that is due mainly to the contributions of newly-created, not hereditary, peers—which re- inforces the argument for the creation of life-peerages.]
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