Lord Rosebery made his great speech on the struggle with
the Lords at Bradford last Saturday. He intimated that the existence of the present Parliament would probably be short, in consequence of the veto placed by an "irresponsible Second Chamber" on all the Irish measures which the Administration were pledged to carry. Yet, though he made the policy of the Lords on Irish questions the chief ground of quarrel with the Lords, he intimated his belief that the appeal to the people would be made not on those Irish questions, but on the inconvenience of a Second Chamber which has only 30 Liberals out of 560 Members. This was the strongest part of his speech. If the country returned 100, or 200, or 300, or 400, or 500, or 600 Liberals to the next House of Commons, the number of Liberals in the House of Lords would be just what it is— namely thirty—in all these cases alike. The opinion of the country could not be in the least degree reflected in the Lords. Whether the Commons contained only 1 per cent. of Liberals or 100 per cent., the House of Lords would still contain 5 per cent., no less and no more,—and that was not a state of things to fill Lord Rosebery with cordial feelings towards his own House. On the contrary, it was a state of things to make the House of Lords repulsive to him. And Bradford, therefore, might trust him on the strength of the principle, "Set a Peer to catch a Peer."
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