Speaking at Blyth last Saturday, Mr. John Morley (M.P. for
Newcastle•on-Tyne), referred to the infatuation of the Lords as likely to bring on at last the question of the true relation of the House of Lords to the Constitution. He thought that if they persisted in rejecting the Reform Bill, they would soon fire- the country with an impatience to be rid of their arbitrariness which would not be satisfied till the House Of Lords had been reduced to the position of a mere "consultative body,"—that is, one permitted to reject a measure once, but not more than once. We must say that would be a form of remedy most distasteful to us. It would retain and even sanction the arbitrariness and wastefulness of the present arrangements, without improving in the least the character of the revising Assembly. Why should an Assembly that can only be trusted to delay a measure for three or four months, be trusted with so- much as this P Surely, if we are to have a second Assembly, it would be well to have one fit for something better than simply to stop the way whenever a few persons of strong pre- judice wish to have the way stopped. The plan of merely weakening the Second Chamber till it becomes a drag on the wheels and nothing more, is hardly one to excite popular enthusiasm.
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