122 LEGISLATIVE PEEKS. 



in those states of antiquity whence most of our political examples are 

 drawn. The violent revolutions which at different times have con- 

 vulsed modern Europe, have arisen from a bigoted attachment to 

 antiquated forms borrowed from less enlightened ages it is this 

 reverence for abuses sanctified by time, accompanied by an inat- 

 tention to the progress of public opinion, which has in most instances 

 blinded the rulers of mankind till government has lost its efficiency, 

 and till the rage of innovation has become too general and too 

 violent to be satisfied with changes, which, if proposed at an earlier 

 period, would have united in the support of established institutions 

 every friend to order and to the prosperity of his country. 



The question which men are now generally putting to themselves, 

 is what will be the result of that indiscriminate zeal against reform, 

 which has brought the elder branch of our legislature into collision 

 with the lower House of Parliament, and which in the minds of the 

 timid is already looked upon as the harbinger of future woe. 



By the constitution of this country, the peers must concur in 

 every Bill before it can become law : by the plain rule of common 

 sense the peers must be allowed therefore to exercise their free and 

 unfettered judgment, otherwise their existence as a legislative body 

 is an absolute mockery. But it must be borne in mind, that the 

 peers were invested with this high prerogative for the good of the 

 community at large ; or, on the other hand, if the interests of the 

 privileged few are to be on every occasion paramount to that of the 

 nation, the political conception of a House of Peers would be as wild 

 an idea as ever entered the head of the hero of La Mancha. The 

 perfection of political wisdom does not consist in an indiscriminate 

 zeal against reformers, but in a gradual and prudent accommodation 

 of established institutions to the varying opinions, manners^ and cir- 

 cumstances of mankind. In the application of this principle many 

 difficulties occur, which it requires a rare combination of talent to 

 surmount but so emancipated has human reason become from the 

 tyranny of ancient prejudices, that a spirit of free discussion, un- 

 exampled in the history of former times, is roused, and that respect, 

 bordering on fanaticism for their ancient constitution, once so marked 

 a feature in the character of the English, is now fast giving way to 

 the intimate conviction of the necessity of a new political organiza- 

 tion more in unison with the enlightened spirit of the age. 



In almost every political constitution that has of late years come 

 into play, we find provisions made for altering it after the expira- 

 tion of a certain time, deemed sufficient for judging of the success of 

 its practical application. On the nature and extent of the changes to 

 be effected in the constitution of this country, it would be arrogant 

 in us even to speculate we shall confine ourselves to simply stating 

 that it is in the constitution of the senior branch of our legislature 

 that a change is imperiously called for. Under this conviction, we 

 offer to our readers a sketch of the constitution of the Upper Cham- 

 bers in the different representative governments that exist ; in them 

 will be found the several elements requisite for effecting a new poli- 

 tical organization skilfully adapted to our present social condition. 



There are three classes of representative governments. 1st. Those 



