CHAPTER XIII 



A REPRESENTATIVE HOUSE OF LORDS 



A FEW years back, Mr. Labouchere introduced a Bill 

 into the House of Commons declaring that, after January 1, 

 1895, the House of Lords shall cease to exist. But it is 

 hardly possible that such a Bill can become law, either 

 in this Parliament or in any of its successors for the next 

 half century, since it would require that the Peers should 

 commit political suicide, and this they would hardly do 

 unless an almost unanimous public opinion compelled such 

 a course, and they considered it more dignified than sub- 

 mitting to actual expulsion. There is, also, as Mr. 

 Labouchere himself acknowledges, a preliminary difficulty, 

 in a very wide- spread impression, even among Liberals, that 

 a second chamber is necessary, combined with an extreme 

 diversity of opinion as to how the second chamber should 

 be constituted. It is evident, therefore, that the abolition 

 of the House of Lords would by no means solve the 

 problem, but would only lead to interminable discussions 

 on the more difficult part of the question what kind of 

 chamber to substitute for it. The stoppage of all useful 

 reforms by any attempt to remodel our constitution in 

 such a revolutionary spirit would be exceedingly un- 

 popular; and would probably involve a longer struggle 

 and more expenditure of parliamentary energy than the 

 effort we recently made to give Ireland permission to 

 manage her own affairs. It may, therefore, be worth 

 while to consider whether there is not a method by which 

 a House of Lords may be retained in such a form as to 



