LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."'
Srn,—A correspondent well versed in British politics tells me that he holds a revolution of some kind to be a certainty of the future. I trust he is mistaken. Danger, however, there surely is. The class which appropriates the name "Labour," as though all work whether of brain or hand were not labour, is in a threatening state of self-isolation and of political antagonism to the other classes. The party system of govern- ment shows its fatal weakness in enabling an extreme section, by playing on the balance of parties, to control the Govern- ment. The House of Commons is apparently becoming less independent and more subject to the will of the irresponsible masses and their local chiefs. Now comes a revival of Pro- tectionism under the alias of Tariff Reform, crossing the political issues, and precluding a general alliance of the opponents of revolution. Female suffrage is at the door. The grant of old-age pensions, as it seems, produced a demagogic demand for more before the first distribution has been made. I am told on very good authority that a settlement of the Irish question is at hand. Under the present Government it must be in favour of Home-rule. Is it likely to be final P Will the calling of the Irish politician who has lived upon Home-rule come to an end ? The only effective safeguard in sight, surely, is such a reconstitution of the House of Lords as shall make it a Second Chamber with a real claim to the respect and confidence of the nation. At present, though it contains some very eminent Members, it, has as a body no such claim. It is the mere ghost of the feudal assembly, of which, be it observed, the non-hereditary element, consisting of Bishops and mitred Abbots, would seem to have been practically something like a moiety. Its history generally is that of a blind and feeble resistance to change, which by irritation stimulates as much as it retards. Its dealing with the Old-Age Pensions Bill is a specimen.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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