FIRST MEND THE MACHINE.
ITO TUB EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR:']
Six,,—Canada watches your doings in England not only with loving curiosity, but also because as a Colonial dependency she cannot fail to feel the effect. Sir Henry Campbell- Bannerman at the head of the Government declared the Upper House to be in need of a radical reform. The legis- lative machine, then, was out of gear. Was it not Sir Henry's duty, then, or that of his party, being in power, to undertake the reform of the Lords, and fit the legislative machine for its duty before bringing forward changes of another kind, the most novel and the most organic ? It can hardly be said, by the way, that the House of Lords is more effete than the party system, which is supposed to be the soul of the House of Commons. The conglomeration of Liberalism, Radicalism, Labour, Socialism, and Home-rule hardly answers to Burke's definition of party as " a body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavour the national interest, upon some particular principle on which they are all agreed." Meantime the Opposition must by its attacks force the Government to throw itself for support into the arms of the extremists, thereby giving them command of the situation.—I am, Sir,
Previous page
