The chief objection we see to a settlement on such
lines as these is that the House of Lords would remain unreformed. That is a result which we should view with very deep regret, and we believe that this regret would be shared by the vast majority of the Peers and by sensible men throughout the country. We cannot, however, conceal from ourselves the fact that though it may not be proclaimed in public, the maintenance of an unreformed House of Lords is held by many Liberals to be an essential part of a compromise. An agreement to leave the House of Lords unreformed, enforced by the Liberals, would be a most astonishing result of the recent attacks on the Upper House ; but strange as it may seem, there are, we fear, a great many sections of the Liberal Party unwilling to consent to compromise on any other t3rms. They know that reform must strengthen the House of Lords, and they are determined not to strengthen it. As the West- minster Gazette tells us daily, the reform of the House of Lords means a diminution of the Royal prerogative, and to this no loyal Liberal will consent. They have all become high- prerogative men. Still, important as is the reform of the Lords, and bitterly as we should regret the abandonment of reform, we must reluctantly admit that Constitutional peace at this moment is the essential. If it can only be obtained by this sacrifice, the sacrifice must be made.
