On Tuesday the Upper House read a second time a
Bill disposing of Bethlem Hospital, which was so munificently bought by Lord Rothermere when the Hospital moved from London. The grounds will be an open space where one is much needed. The building under the dome will be a War Museum in relief of the overcrowded Institute in Kensington. From lunacy to war ! What a theme for the moralist or epigrammatist ! The baleful moon has looked down there for so long upon suffering borne in her name as well as on Christian charity and, in the past, mistaken cruelty. As she looks upon the relics of our battlefields offered up in this temple of hers, will she wonder whether she is accused of having struck the whole civilized world in 1914 ? The Lords proceeded to debate and to give a second reading to the Representation of the People Bill, refusing by 50 votes to 14 the motion for its rejection. But Lord Ullswater spoke with reason and authority of the bad precedent by which a Bill of that kind was brought in without some agreement among the parties.
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