Lord Malmesbury is generally thought to be one of the
political, or rather, official straws which show which way the wind blows. If so, the prospect that our Conservative City Member, Mr. Twells, will soon have the desire of his heart—to see the Tory Government at last " begin " in earnest—is really close at hand. For Lord Malmesbury confided on Thursday week, to a company dining with him at Christchurch, at the anniversary of the South Avon and Stour Agricultural Society, that the House of Lords, "though not elected by the people," certainly "represented the people more than any Assembly which it was possible to find. He did not except the House of Commons." This startling assertion he proceeded to demonstrate thus :—" In the House of Lords several large interests were represented which had no representatives in the House of Commons ; for instance, the Clergy. Every interest was represented in that House. There were to be found there the most distinguished soldiers, naval men, bankers, manufacturers, scientific men, historians, poets, and men eminent in every kind of literature." Of course, so immaterial a consideration as that not a single Member of the House of Lords can be said in any sense to represent the millions of English working-men, did not cross Lord Malmesbury's mind. Such a trifle as that would not in the least affect the assertion that the House of Lords represents the people "more than any Assembly which it is possible to find," not excepting the House of Commons. Can the Government be contemplating the policy of lending a sudden support to some
private Member's Bill "to put down" elections? Lord Malmes- bury, with such views as these, can hardly have -helped thinking, like Mr. Gladstone, once, twice, thrice, whether it is wise to retain so superfluous a bit of machinery as one of the Houses of Pax- Bement ; only in his case, it is on the disappearance of the House of Commons that his fancy dwells. What is the use of a duplicate Chamber which it is so troublesome and expensive to elect, and which, when you have got it, after all represents the whole people less efficiently than the hereditary House of Lords? Can the nation really afford such costly redundancies?
