On Monday in the Lords Lord Selborne moved that a
con- tribution to party funds should not be a consideration to a Minister when be recommended anyone for an honour. He thought that recommendations for honours might be supervised by the Privy Council, but the really important need was for a great uprising of public opinion. Lord Milner protested against the matter being "chaffed out of court." The present Government had created sixty-three barons, about one-sixth of the total members of that rank. The preceding Unionist Government had created forty-one. Wealth, by means of this traffic, was acquiring an unhealthy influence over the country. Lord Crewe assured the House that the Prime Minister had never been guided by contribu- tions to party funds in recommending public men for honours. Lord Lansdowne thought the evil was exaggerated, brit declared that the Sovereign and his Ministers could check the abuses, particularly if the Ministers were strongly supported by both Houses. We have dealt with the whole problem elsewhere.
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