pro TUE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—A Moderate Radical, to
whom the Spectator is a weekly- comfort, I agree with Sir Robert Anstruther that your pro- posal,—" to restore what the early Norman Kings undoubtedly possessed, the Sovereign's right of selecting from amongst the Barons those whom he wished to summon to his counsels,"— offers the most statesmanlike solution of our difficulty with- " the Lords," under existing circumstances. It will be time enough to return to the constitution of the old Saxon Witan, by making each Peer directly represent the freeholders of a shire, or portion of a shire, when we are in full possession of Manhood Suffrage, the arrival of which happy time will, doubt- less, teach the freeholders, and I would add to these the income- tax payers, in short, the "haves," the need of elected, and therefore respected, buffers to minimise the shock of the well- intentioned socialistic legislation the " have-nots " are sure to- cry for, and their representatives slavishly promise—at the expense of the " haves."
This, however, is digressing. I hope you will strenuously urge the propriety, not to say the policy, of giving seats to the- representatives of the Colonies, with all the privileges (by courtesy) of Peers on the cross-benches in any reformed Houses of Lords, which may be finally agreed to.—I am, Sir, Ste.,
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