8 The approaching Session of Parliament. 



ever, and to the Commons' representatives, we do not advise a pas- 

 sive expectation of the result. Measures must meanwhile be in 

 progress for facilitating the accomplishment of so desirable an object. 

 The Reformers in the House of Commons are not only a powerful 

 but a talented body ; and in the present day a fair proportion of 

 them possess the influence of rank and fortune. Their talented 

 leaders will not, we hope, hesitate to bring forward this great ques- / 

 tion and exhibit it, as it deserves, in the ensuing session. * If Minis- 

 ters support them, or at least allow Peerage Reform to be considered 

 an open question, all will be well. If the Lords obstruct their mea- 

 sures again, let the Ministers tender their resignations ; for they may 

 be sure that with the House of Commons at their back, they may 

 offer them in security and gain additional powers from the Sovereign. 

 But let them not create peers. This is but a sorry way of surmount- 

 ing difficulties ; for it only increases the evil. Other measures for 

 neutralizing lordly obstruction have been devised : and the talents 

 of a Molesworth, a Grote, and an O'Connell will point out to the 

 country those methods which we have neither the room nor the 

 ability to discuss. 



One word to the Reformers, ere we close these very brief re- 

 marks. We repeat to them the trite but very true saying : UNITY 

 is STRENGTH. Their forces must be concentrated, must be em- 

 ployed in that particular direction, where they shall be most effective. 

 It is not our intention to disapprove of canvassing general questions 

 on their broad principles ; but we well know that success is only 

 certain, when the means used to ensure it are staked on one great 

 and absorbing question. What then shall that question be ? Shall 

 it be Peerage reform, the Ballot, Extended Suffrage, Shortened 

 Parliaments, or Church-reform? For all these questions are un- 

 questionably important. The decision, we think, is not difficult. 

 Peerage reform is a new question and can only be carried after a 

 lengthened period of discussion and agitation : the questions of 

 Extended Suffrage and Shortened Parliaments are important, but of 

 little use, so long as the power of unduly influencing votes re- 

 mains, so that these are at present only secondary questions : and 

 Church-reform is so certain and inevitable, that it would be waste of 

 strength to employ it in gaining what must come of itself. In 

 short the grand question, on which the sincere advocates of Reform 

 must concentrate their strength during the ensuing Session must be 



