[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR. "] SIR, —As I read
from week to week the various suggestions
which appear in your columns for the reform of the House of Lords, the question recurs again and again to my mind,—" Cui bono ?" I had thought that the fitness of representative government had become fully recognised in this country. Why, then, if the various shades of opinion and feeling are repre-
sented by the 650 men sent up by the constituencies, is it needful to have a second body of men to interfere with, to maim, distort, or nullify the decisions of those 650 representa- tives, after an unscionable amount of time has been devoted to the consideration of these measures ? The only plea advanced which is worth answering is that the veto of the Lords is a check to hasty or ill-considered legislation, to the impetuous tendency upon the part of Radicals and Reformers to press for- ward their measures before the people are ripe for the changes which would follow. Let the instance cited by Mr. Katen- kamp, in your last week's issue, reply to this assertion. Fifty years ago a writer expresses views with regard to the urgent need of reform in the House of Lords, in words which are only being re-echoed in the journals of to-day. Fifty years, and nothing done, whilst innumerable measures of necessary reform have been retarded, mutilated, or buried. Is the progress too rapid even for the sloth-like pace of a Tory brain ? Can any rational being who reads the Parliamentary debates, and still retains his mental vigour, believe that the opposition which is brought to bear in the House of Commons against almost every progressive measure, is insufficient to prevent the shooting of Niagara ?
If the people are wise, they will listen to no proposal for reform of the Lords which leaves a veto in the hands of that Chamber. If needful to have a Second Chamber, which some doubt, its functions should be purely deliberative. It should comprise the ablest men to be found in each Department, and their business should be to consider and suggest legislative schemes, or to examine those initiated in the other House; but the voice of the people should be declared through their direct representatives, and that voice should be final and unanswer- able. Never, until this end is attained, can we boast of repre- sentative Government, and I trust that my fellow-countrymen will fix their eyes and their wills upon this point. —I am, Sir, &c.,
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