44 



The Review of Reviews. 



July I, 1906. 



LX.-WHAT ABOUT THE HOUSE 



" Mend or End ?" the old jingle, is likely to be 

 revived with a vengeance before the Session closes. 

 But the first Mend or End alternative is one for the 

 Peers' decision. What will the Peers do with the 

 Education Bill and the Trades Disputes Bill, to name 

 only two of the measures which the Ministerial 

 majority in the Commons will send up to them in 

 July or August? Will they mend them or end them? 

 I sought counsel with a Councillor well versed in the 

 ways of the Peers, who has grown grey in the service 

 of the State. " Will they mend or end ?" I asked. 



" Neither," he replied grimly. " They dare not 

 end them ; they cannot mend them. What they will 

 do is to spoil them, botch them, mutilate and mar 

 them." 



" The Lords' Amendments, then, will not be 

 improvements ?" 



" How can they be ? John Bull has dismissed his 

 head cook. The new cook is preparing dainty dishes 

 to set before the King. But the late cook's elder 

 brother is left in the kitchen with full permission to 

 add whatever ingredients he pleases to the dishes 

 before they are sent to table. What will happen ? 

 He will put sugar in the soup, cayenne into the 

 puddings, and serve the roasts upon cold plates. So 

 the Lords will set themselves to spoil the Commons' 

 Bills." 



" But what then ?" 



" Why, then, when the Lords' Amendments come 

 to be considered in the Commons, the Peers are 

 likely to have a rude awakening — something like that 

 which was experienced by the citizens of San 

 Francisco when the earth moved for the space of 

 three minutes, and the heart of the city became a 

 mass of smoking ruins. The present House of Com- 

 mons will stand no nonsense from the Lords." 



"And so you anticipate the collision ?" 



" Will be like Stephenson's story of the collision 

 between a locomotive and the cow, ' It w'ill be varra 

 bad for the coa' " 



" But does not the ' coo ' in her gilded bvre realise 

 that ?" 



" Not the least in the world. They think the same 

 old show is going on in the same old way, and that 

 they still count for as much as ever they did, where- 

 as they really count for nothing — except a pile of 

 decaying rubbish that wall have to be cleared out of 

 the way." 



" You do not then rate highlv the resisting force 

 of the Peers?" 



"There is no force but vis inertia in the 

 Upper House. The Opposition from an intellectual 

 point of view is beneath contempt. Lord Lansdowne 

 is an amiable intelligent Liberal Unionist, but as a 



OF LORDS?— MEND OR END? 



fighting man — pah ! The Duke of Devonshire is no 

 longer in the regular Opposition. Lord Halsbury is 

 an octogenarian who does not even take the trouble 

 to master his political briefs. The Liberals are few 

 in number, and they are nowhere in the division 

 lobby. But the Unionists are nowhere in debate." 



" But they do not realise their own position ?" 



" Not the least in the world. They have the 

 courage of ignorance, the strength of numbers, and 

 thev will advance all unconscious to their doom. " 



" Then you think they are doomed ?" 



" Certainly. ' The whiff of death ' has already 

 gone out against them. With the exception of the 

 Bishops and the Law Lords, they represent nobody 

 but their fathers. There are some of the nouveaux 

 riches who ' stink of money,' but politically they do 

 not count." 



" Would you end or mend ?" 



" I think the line of least resistance would be to 

 continue the bi-cameral system, but to convert the 

 House of Lords into a really representative Second 

 Chamber, which would enable us to utilise many 

 capable minds at present shut out from the serv'ice 

 of the nation, and supply a House of Revision which 

 would not confine itself to saying ditto to everjthing 

 a Tor)' majority in the Commons may say and to 

 vetoing everything a Liberal majority may propose 

 to do." 



" Have you any ideas as to how it should be con- 

 stituted ?" 



" I think a mixed Chamber would be most easily 

 put together. The nobles might elect, say, fifty of 

 their own number. To them might be added a 

 certain number of administrators and officials who 

 have held the highest posts in the Empire. But the 

 bulk of the new Senate would be elected by the 

 County Councils and the great cities — say two from 

 each county and one from ever\- city of 300,000 

 inhabitants." 



"Would you turn out the Bishops?" 



" T am not sure. But if they were allowed to 

 remain. I w'ould add the Moderators of the General 

 Assemblies of the Presbyterians, the President of the 

 Wesleyan Conference, the chiefs of the other Free 

 Churches, and the heads of the Roman Church. By 

 this means we might get a real Second Chamber 

 which would command the respect of the country." 



" Might it not be too Conservative ?" 



" Possibly. In that case its veto might be limited 

 so as to be exercised only once, or other arrange- 

 ments might be made to secure its submission. We 

 have got to risk something. And the present House 

 of Lords is hopeless." 



