TOPICS OF THE DAY.
HOW TO CARRY "THE BILL" BY STRENGTHENING THE PEERAGE.
FOR the more rapid progress of the Bill this week we are indebted to the renewed courage of Ministers ; and the Ministers are in- debted to the People and the Press for the stimulating demonstra- tion which has revived the spirits of all-the poor PEEL- HUNTITES alone excepted. Once more we may consider the question as disposed of in the House of Commons. It is perhaps as sure that the present House of Lords would not pass the Bill, as that the House of Commons will pass it. How may the difficulty be met, of opposition between the two branches of the Legislature, on a question of such great importance that it involves all possible questions ? We answer- by adding wealth, respectability, and power, to the House of Lords!-arid by that means only. Let us endeavour to establish the truth of this proposition. The object is to render the two Houses unanimous on the sub- ject of Reform. The state of facts is, that a majority of the Lower House is favourable, and a majority of the Upper House unfavour- able to Reform ; and that it is wholly impossible to make the Lower House agree with the Upper. It follows, that the only means of unanimity is by making the Upper House agree with the Lower. But what are the primary means of this immediate means ? Per- suasion-" friendly advice "-has been tried in vain : intimidation has not been spared,-for it would be false and stupid to deny that the People have threatened to carry the Bill over the House of Lords, if not through it. Only one method of proceeding remains -viz. to increase the number of Lords who agree with a majority of the Commons.
Would such a measure be constitutional ? Perfectly; for what is the object of the King's unlimited right to create Peers, if it be not to procure unanimity between the three branches of the Legis- lature, whenever the House of Lords is opposed, on some import- ant question, to both the Crown and the Commons ? Is the question of sufficient importance to justify the use of the King's prerogative for the purpose of procurino.b unanimity? Who can doubt that it is, if the alternative lie between unanimity and risking the horrors of civil war? The question of Reform may not be taken up and laid down at pleasure, like the Corn-laws, or like Catholic Emancipation in the olden time. Somehow or other the Bill must and will be passed. The object is, that it should be passed through, not over, the House of Lords. The ob- ject is to preserve the House of Lords : not only, then, are the proposed means justifiable, but they are imperatively required by the state of facts, about which there can be no question.
Some of the Tories have said, ironically, that rather than not carry the Bill, his Majesty would raise a few score of his Life Guards to the Peerage. By this balderdash, they would lead us to believe that any increase of numbers in the House of Lords would decrease the respectability and influence of that assembly. Inventinc, a false premise, they easily draw a false conclusion. The fallacy lies in assuming, that the number added to the House of Lords will consist of poor and mean people. If, indeed, a hundred Peers should be created, all of them as poor in purse and mean in mind and reputation as some on whom successive Tory Adminis- trations have bestowed titles and the right of making laws, then the Aristocratic branch of the Legislature might sink in public estimation ; but nothing of the sort is proposed. On the contrary, it so happens,-fortunately, a large creation of Peers being -wanted,-that there is ready to the King's hand a great accumula- tion of wealthy and most respectable commoners holding opinions in unison with the Crown and the People; and from these, of course, the new Peers will be selected. Will the House of Lords suffer in public estimation, by numbering amongst its members such men as Mr. COKE, of Norfolk; Mr. PORTMAN1 of Wiltshire ; Sir FRANCIS BURDETT ' ' Mr. LITTLETON, of Staffordshire ; and Mr. JOHN SMITH, of breath-losing, borough-sacrificing celebrity? Of course nat. The truth is, that a large creation of Peers fronir commoners wealthy, respectable in character, and known to sym- pathize with the People, would RAISE the House of Lords in public estimation. Our proposition, then, is made out-the way to carry the Reform Bills through the House of Lords, is by adding wealth, respectability, and power to that assembly.
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