Lord Salisbury on Thursday vetoed Lord Carnarvon's Black Sheep Bill,
saying that, while he approved its principle, he did not approve its method. If they were to expel any Peer con- victed of malpractice, they would have to recognise the Jockey Club as a court of competent jurisdiction, which would never do. He " did not think it desirable, except for adequate reason, to subject the constitution of their Lordships' House to the dissecting light of the House of Commons," and would rather consider the subject in connection with some project of general reform. The House, therefore, voted the previous question by 73 to 14,—not a very satisfactory ending. There can be no doubt that the House of Lords ought to possess the power of expelling a bankrupt, or a criminal, or any one with whom decent men will not associate ; and we hardly under- stand the certainty so frequently expressed that they do not possess it. They certainly in the Wensleydale case claimed and exercised the right to refuse a seat to any Peer ; and why can they not exercise it for moral as well as political cause P It may be true enough, as Lord Salisbmy says, that the black sheep are few ; but if there were three Negro Peers in the House, everybody who entered it would see them first.
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