Mr. Newdegate made a very significant speech at Rugby on
Thursday. He is one of the Toriest men in the House, believing in Protection, subscribing to prosecute Mr. Bradlaugh, and so on ; but he likes the House of Commons, and he likes fairness. He stated that the Conservative argument for resisting reform of procedure—namely, that Liberals were sure to do wrong, and therefore the less they did the better, gave him only pain ; and that he should, therefore, support the Government upon that subject. He held that the Members who opposed plans for making the House efficient, neglected to secure the per- formance of the duty for which they had been returned. The House "might become democratised and degraded," and pass unwise Bills ; but if it did, the remedy was to strengthen the Second Chamber by a reform of the House of Lords, and then call upon that improved House to do its work, not to paralyse the Representatives until their duty could not be done. Mr. Newdegate did not describe the kind of reform in the Lords that he would desire, but leaned towards " Lord John Russell's plan," a Considerable creation of Life Peers, and would, apparently, place all first-class Judges in the House. A good many Tories will, we imagine, agree with Mr. Newdegate, and insist that the House of Commons, good or bad, must be enabled to transact the business it was elected to get through.
