The Peers are waking up a little. One reason for
the bad attendance is that the elder Peers, and more especially Lord Derby, steadily snub the younger Peers, if by intervening in the debate they delay dinner. Lord Shaftesbury therefore, on Tuesday, gave notice that he should move to change the hour of session from five to four, and so give the younger Peers a chance. This is to be adopted, and when on Thursday Lord Lyveden also proposed a Committee to consider proxies, Lord Derby promised to grant one which would examine the whole subject. He did not defend proxies at all earnestly, and seems to wish for a larger attendance. All the Peers, however, make the mistake of praising themselves for the shortness of their debates. They cannot get rid of a secret conviction that their opinions will impress the country without the reasons for them, which was true once, but is becoming less true day by day. Their power consists in their grand right of addressing the country whenever they choose, without fear of constituents, and if they will not exert the one, they will very speedily lose the other. The householders cannot be resisted, unless they are converted, and coroneted mutes will convert nobody.
