Lard Rosebery, replying to the toast of the Houses of
Parliament at the annual banquet of the lionnetmakerai Licorperation of Glasgow yesterday week, spoke at length and with a happy mixture ef wit and sagacity on the positiOn and future of the gall%) gf laprds. Dismissing the extravagant exaggerations of 0114:gists ancl 4f actors T,iord Hosebery declared that while he had never been p.ble to defend the present constitution of the House of Iordta —which he had stoutly attacked and constantly encleavOured to reformhe was from the bottom of his heart PM KIWI
convinced ef the necessity of an effective Second Chamber. He reminded his hearers that Peers as a rule—always excepting the twenty just and enlightened noblemen created by the present Government—were there not from choice, but involnritarily, and to a large extent by the accident of necessity and the law of the land. It was their only chance of associating themselves with the political life of the country, and it was a great flaw in our Constitution to shut them up in the House of Lords and give them no way out of it. But once there they could not be expected, as honest men, to abdicate their opinions.
Previous page
