In Hungary, the very home of aristocratic feeling, the Govern-
meat has been compelled to propose a reform of the House of Lords. It appears that there, as here, the statesmen are baffled by the sudden descent of swarms of rural magnates, who know nothing of politics, and have not heard the debates, but vote in obedience to their leaders and to caste prejudice. The Bill legalising marriages between Christians and Jews was thus lost. The Premier, Herr Tisza, has, therefore, determined to reform the House; and on Monday the Emperor-King, in his speech from the Throne, declared that reform had been demanded for years, and "could no longer be deferred." It is understood that the main principles of the reform will be a large reduction in the number of the hereditary Lords, only the head of the. family being permitted to vote, and the creation of Life-Peers Hitherto, all within certain degrees of kinship have been accounted nobles. It might be difficult to force the Bill through the House, but that the influence of the King with the nobles is great and direct, and that the heads of the Church, who have seats in the House, are disposed to support the change. 'The Emperor, in his speech, referred pointedly to the necessity of diminishing the friction between the different faiths, nation- alities, and classes under the Crown of St. Stephen.
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