234 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap, xiii 



honourable mode of escape from a difficult jDosition, not by 

 an ignominious surrender to popular demands after a long 

 struggle which they know must terminate in defeat, but 

 by voluntarily recognizing their anomalous character as 

 hereditary legislators in an otherwise representative 

 government, and by themselves initiating the reconstruc- 

 tion of the Constitution which at no distant date is 

 inevitable. By so doing they may preserve the 

 continuity of the aristocratic Upper Chamber, add 

 greatly to its dignity and power, and give to the world 

 the too rare example of a privileged class voluntarily 

 resigning such of its privileges as are inconsistent with 

 modern civilization. This I conceive to be true conserva- 

 tism. 



To the Liberal and Radical parties — and I am myself 

 an extreme Radical — I submit my scheme as one that 

 will remove all the evils and anomalies of the present 

 House of Lords, transforming it into a representative 

 chamber of the very highest character, which must 

 always be in harmony with advanced public opinion as 

 expressed by the whole body of its freely elected local 

 representatives. Such a House of Lords would be really 

 capable of fulfilling what is supposed to be the special 

 function of an Upper Chamber — that of calm and judicial 

 consideration of such measures as were the result of 

 sudden waves of prejudice or passion, either in the popu- 

 lation at large or in the House of Commons. It would 

 thus appeal from Philip drunk to Phihp sober, and would 

 give expression to deliberate and permanent, rather than 

 to hasty and temporary, public opinion. To secure a body 

 capable of doing this — and I cannot see how it could be 

 more effectually done than by some such method as I have 

 here suggested — would be, in my opinion, a measure of 

 radical, yet safe and judicious, reform. 



