XIII A REPRESENTATIVE HOUSE OF LORDS 231 



Some persons may object to each county, however small, 

 electing the same number of representative peers, and may 

 urge that proportionate population should be the basis of 

 representation as in the case of the House of Commons. 

 But this is rather to mistake the purport of the mode of 

 election here suggested — which is, not that the elected 

 peers should be held to represent the counties in their local 

 interests, but as a means of selecting the best possible 

 Upper House, by the vote of an intelligent and popularly 

 chosen electorate s]3read over the whole country, and likely 

 to be personally acquainted with the merits or defects of 

 those local residents who are qualified to be chosen as 

 representative peers. For this purpose, the councillors 

 in a small or thinly populated county would be at no 

 disadvantage; on the contrary, it is quite possible that 

 they might make a wiser choice than those which are 

 most densely populated. 



Advantages of the Plan. 



The scheme now very briefly set forth claims to be, 

 not only a good scheme in itself, but probably the best 

 compromise which, under existing conditions, is possible. 

 The more thoughtful and more influential among the 

 peerage must see that the people of the United Kingdom 

 will not much longer submit to a body of hereditary law- 

 givers which not only has the power to defeat legislation 

 earnestly desired by the majority of the voters, but which 

 often exercises that power. They must also feel that the 

 position of the present House of Lords is not a dignified 

 one, while its record of service to the country will make 

 but a sorry show in the pages of history. Almost every 

 great reform which has been effected in this century, 

 whether in ameliorating the severity of the criminal laws, 

 in removing disabilities attendant on religious belief, in 

 opening the universities to the people, or in the abolition 

 of protective duties on the necessaries of life, has been at 

 first strenuously opposed by the Lords, and ultimately 

 adopted under pressure of public opinion, or for the pur- 

 pose of forestalling political opponents. In very few 



