NEWS OF THE WEEK
MR. GLADSTONE, though weary and hoarse with speech-making, made, on Wednesday, a speech of importance to the citizens of Perth. We have quoted the more serious sentences, which warn the House of Lords that he will be unable to resist the demand for their reform, elsewhere; and wish here to dwell on his secondary point. Mr. Gladstone is evidently most dissatisfied with the Scotch and Irish Representative Peers. He contends that they lower the very slightly representative character of the Upper House. Of the great hereditary families, a consider- able minority are Liberals ; but of the forty-four Scotch and Irish -Representative Peers only two are Liberals, and this although both Scotland and Ireland are in an immense proportion Liberal. The majority of Peers invested with the power of selection utterly reject proportional representation of any sort, and confine election to their own party. The " hereditary " Assembly is borne down by men who do not re- present the nobility of Ireland and Scotland, but only the majority of them. Mr. Gladstone dwelt so long on this abuse, that it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he has some remedy to offer, or that it is a large draft of Scotch and Irish Liberal Peers into the Upper House. The House could not object ; and if there are enough of such men, the Franchise Bill might be carried without. any addition to the titled class. The remedy would be, of course, an evasion of the permanent diffi- culty,. as the-sons of most of these men will behave like Lord Brabourne.; but a large creation of this sort might for a few years sweeten the Upper House.
