A TORY PLAN OF PEERAGE REFORM.
TICE is the progress of the Peerage Reform question, that even Tories see a necessity for some great alteration in the spirit an dbehaviour, at least, of the Upper House. Blackwood of this month puts forth a plan of Peerage Reform, which is highly ap- proved by the Standard. Let us examine it.
" That able and intrepid body should consider that, however highly they are now estimated for having thrown themselves into the breach, and cast down the dragon of revolution at the first encounter, yet the weapons they have em- ployed in the conflict may, in the end, if not duly tempered, prove dangerous to themselves. If year after year go on, and the bills sent up by the Com- mons are rejected, the People will become impatient of restraint, and the cry of their being Obstructives may swell into a Reform tempest which may finally sink the Constitution. It is impossible to over-estimate the insouciance and inattention of the masses of mankind ; the surface alone is seen by them ; the repetition of falsehood for a certain time in the end makes it pass for truth. To obviate this danger, we would earnestly and emphatically recommend the Peers to prepare, bring into their own House, and mature by full and anxious de- bates, during the whole session, a great variety of bills having a practically beneficial character. Let them unflinchingly throw out all bills coming up from the Commons with a democratic or selfish character ; but as sedulously mature, and send down to them, many measures calculated, without benefiting either the democratic or the aristocratic parties, to remedy existing and prac- tical evils, and alleviate the sufferings of the poor. Such topics are in- numerable; in the heat of party or selfish legislation they are now all but forgotten; but their importance would at once appear if brought forward night after night in the House of Peers, by the ability of a Lyndhurst, an Abioger, or an Ashburton. The introduction of a well-digested system of Poor-laws into Ireland, free equally from the abuses of the old and the cruelty of the new system in England—the correction of the monstrous inhumanity of the present law on that subject established by the Whigs—the establishment of a permanent and extensive system of Emigration, by the aid of Government, from Ireland—the new-modelling and extending the Church, especially in the manufacturing districts, so as to include the unconverted who sworn, in the realm, and the erection of a permanent system for making the ecclesiastical accommodation keep pace with the growth of the population—the extension of Local Courts and Cheap Justice in the provinces—the interests of India, of the West Indies, of Canada—ore among those important topics which might occupy their Lordships' attention ; and, by bringing before the eyes of the People the real ameliorations they are heartily disposed to promote, effectually extinguish the cry of their being opposed to all improvement. It will not do in these times to be merely a court of review—they must be also a coma of original jurisdiction. We attach the highest importance to the early and able adoption of this system; indeed, we are convinced the issue rl the struggle de- pends upon its being put into practice."
Does it ? Then " the issue of the struggle " is not doubtful ; for the Lords cannot adopt the " system " of salvation here re- commended.
And why not ? Because it is forbidden by the constitution of the Peerage. Men who are responsible to no one (as Sir ROBERT PEEL says) but their God, will never consult any other interests than their own. Whenever the Lords have displayed knowledge and activity in public affairs, the exhibition has been confined to a few of their number ; and the exertion has ever had for its sole object the advantage of the aristocratic classes. The Lords never had, and, as at present constituted, never will have, any feeling for the People. All their sympathies are for themselves only. They are essentially selfish. " Practical evils innumerable," says the monthly organ of Toryism, call for reform. When were these discovered ? They are " now all but forgotten," continues Blackwood, "in the heat of party or selfish legislation." When were they not so forgotten by the House of Lords ? Those evils have not been forgotten by those who suffer them. "Innumerable and practical," they occasioned the demand for a Reform of the House of Commons. The removal of them is time end for which the Reform Bill was supported as a means. But what is it that de- prives us for a time of the natural and necessary consequences of the Reform Bill ?—It is the House of Lords. The Lords do not even " forget " those " innumerable practical evils," but main- tain them, by scornfully rejecting every proposal of improvement. It is in their very nature to do so. Their " party and selfish" spirit disables them from originating the redress of grievances, however " practical and innumerable ;'' and if ever they consent to any, it will only be, as before, upon compulsion—through fear. Base fear, and nothing else, is the avowed motive of the present suggestion. " The weapons they have employed " against the People, " may in the end, if not duly tempered, prove dangerous to themselves." " The cry of their being Obstructives may swell into a Reform tempest which may finally sink the Constitution "- meaning themselves. " To obviate this danger, we would earnestly and emphatically recommend the Peers," &c. This coward Tory but trembles for his idols; and would have them, for but their own safety's sake, assume the guise of generous sympathy for the People. Desperate Lvrinnuaszinsulting and defying whom he hates, is more respectable. This is an answer, by the way, to certain Tories, who, because we speak plain truth to the Whigs, have joyfully taken it into their wise heads that the Spectator would support a Conforming Ministry. If Blackwood's advice were followed by the Tory Lords, the ends of Radicalism would be attained; for the Radicals have no other final object than the removal of " innumerable practical evils." To this, as an end, all their demands and efforts, as means, are directed. Why, then, should not the earnest Reformers accept Conformity amounting to Radicalism ?—Because there is an if in the case, showing the fraud of' one side, and pregnant with disap- pointment for the other. Conformity is a mere profession, a cheat, a promise made only to be broken : pretending to the same ends as Radicalism, its real object is to prevent their accomplish- ment. Conformity is like a known thief who should offer to take care of your money for you, and who, of course, if you were goose enough to trust him, would rob and laugh at you. Let us, then, be clearly understood. We do think that a Conforming Govern- ment, which would give something by way of ground-bait to the Reformers, preferable, though not much, to one which should give absolutely nothing. But the Conforming fisher does not, because he cannot, conceal his Tory hook. Attempt as he may to dis- guise it, his object is, plainly and only, to tempt to their destruc- tion those whose natural enemy he is. Speaking of Conformity, we shall ever say, as before—Beware of the hook ! The utmost that Conformity can ever do, will be now and then to catch a stray Radical gudgeon—FEARGUS O'CONNOR, perhaps, or any other fit successor of the late Mr. HENRY HUNT—but certainly not the Spectator, need we say to any but a Tory finder of mare's- nests ?
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