The rumour, so anxiously kept up for three or four
weeks by the Opposition press, that the House of Lords are able and will- ing to oppose the passing of the Reform Bill, still continues to cir- culate. Let them oppose it ever so factiously—we anticipate no riots, no disturbance on this account. The constitutional oppo- sition of the Upper House, if persisted in, admits of a constitu- tional remedy. The people know this, and that, if required, the remedy will be applied ; and come what may, they will possess their souls in patience, and "bide their time." But doubt is dis- agreeable to them, and injurious to their Lordships—it tends to foster feelings of dislike, where, after all, none may be due ; it tends to place both parties in a false light—to represent the Peers as being influenced by a dread of the People, and the People as silently threatening the Peers, where no such sentiments actuate either party. To the Government, any uncertainty as to the pass- ing of the Bill must be painful. If the Lords throw it out, or so modify it as to compel the Commons to throw it out, no fresh bill can be introduced until another session. Supposing the Ministers to remain in power—as we feel assured they will—a whole year will thus be lost, not to Reform merely, but to all the measures of improvement to which Reform is a preliminary. If, on the other hand, the opinions of' the Upper House were decidedly and explicitly expressed on the first working-day of the session, all this delay would be spared. Let their Lordships only resolve not to admit the principles of the Bill, and it will remain for the nistry either to give it up, or to give up their places, or, adhering to both, to advise his Majesty to that constitutional remedy which is provided to prevent permanent differences between the House of Lords and the other two branches of the Legislature. Not only will it decide whether this ultimate remedy is required, it will determine its precise extent. The majority of the Peers against Reform once fairly known, the number of new creations is known. We stated last week, in expressing what we humbly conceived the King's Speech ought to contain, that the prominent feature of it ought to be the Bill. There is no doubt, that in one respect we shall be gratified. Reform will be recommended in the Speech. There is, usually, however, in all Royal Speeches, a vagueness of expression, which may mean any thing. All Ministers are anxi- ous, for the sake of unanimity, to favour this laxity of interpre- tation, by fallacious distinctions between general and particular, between principle and detail. Their constant language is—" You may agree to the address without scruple ; we shall not hold you in any respect pledged by reason of your vote." On the present occasion, we think that every consideration of policy points to a different line of conduct, and that both in the speech of the King and in the speeches of Ministers every unmeaning generality ought to be carefully avoided. It might be inexpedient even for Ministers themselves that the Royal Speech should recommend the Bill totidem verbis ; but there is nothing to prevent it from re- commending the three great principles of the Bill—the disfran- chisement of the rotten boroughs, the bestowing of representatives on large towns and counties, the extension of the franchise. If these be distinctly recommended by the King to Parliament, and enforced by the explicit declarations of Ministers, that, in agreeing to the address, the two Houses will be held as approving of them, -the advantage to Government will be great. In the first place, they get rid at once of all that senseless chatter of which we had so much last session, about the opinions of the King and the impropriety of allusions to those opinions. His Majesty having spoken publicly and determinately, there is no longer any room for doubt or cavil on that score. In the next place, the plan which we respectfully counsel Ministers to adopt, is strictly constitutional. They are in all things the advisers of the Crown. They are responsible for the Speech, as for the other public acts of the King. It will greatly strengthen them in pub- lic estimation, to show openly that they do not seek to shrink from the utmost liability to which their high office subjects them. our plan will bring the question between Ministers and onents in the House of Lords to an immediate issue.
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