THE REFORMING LORDS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 111, 12 May 1911, Page 6

THE REFORMING LORDS.

Not- .merely doee Lord Laaedowne's Reform' Btll^ abolish theadpeo-"facto-'quali-fication by heredity -to a> seat in the House of Lards and-confine the rights of the hereditary Peero to<&e* election! <»f 100 of their own number to a. .Honee of 346 members, but it, further limit* the field of choice by-stipulating for-certain qualification* of a faidy exacting character on the part of candidates for election. In order to qualify for election as a hereditary legislator it will be necessary for a hereditary Peer to have held political office or an important appointment at Home or abroad, to have been a member of the. Privy Council, the Diplomatic Service, or the Army Council, or a captain*in the Navy or a colonel on the Active List. Theee, at any rate, are the qualifications enumerated in our cabled summary of Lord Lansdowne's speech, bufcdfc is quite likely that the list supplied, which* is, taken from the speech and not from the Bill itself, is not exhaustive. Otherwise it appears to attach undue importance to experience in the Services. Were not Lord Eo&ebery's laboure, for instance, as. Chairman of the London County Council a sufficient guarantee of his fitnesfi t for election to the-, reformed ..Second'

Chamber, even, if they had stood alone? It ie, of course, possible that service of this kind ie covered by the phrase "important appointments at Home or abroad," but the context rather suggests that appointments under the Government are intended. With the additional safeguard of election, by the whole body of Pcere, it muet be conceded that Cho average etandard of the 100 elected memben would be a. very high one in, respect both of ability and of experience. Instead of being merely the accident- of an accident, the Peer who secured admission to the reformed House would have given a guarantee of personal qualification* to which th© fact of election to the "other place" would afford no parallel. But, ac we pointed out yesterday, some system of proportional representation will have to be applied unless the small leaven of Liberalism in the aristocracy ie to be entirely excluded from tho (reconstituted Chamber. ■ What chance would Lord Morley, Lord Orewe, Lord Haldane, or even Lord Courtney hay« of election on a majority vote by a House which rejected the Budget by 350 to 75? It may be said in reply that it would be still open, to a Libefal Peer to- secure a place in the Chamber, either among the 100 members to be nominated by the Crown or as one of the 120 representatives of outside constituencies. Bub these considerations do not affect the. fact that from the representation of the aristocracy as such the liberal- : ism which, from its capacity to nourish in , so unpromising an environment, deserves special regard,, would be excluded. If the aristocracy is to be entitled ! to any special representation at all, it i must surely be on a. plan which will not ! annihilate entirely the representation of the minority whose advanced views are well calculated to temper the bitterness of class warfare. It is interesting to see, that Lord Lansdowne's Bill provides that "any Peer, unless he be a i Lord of Parliament, is to-be eligible for a seat in th« House of Commons." This provision would furnish the Liberal Peers with some consolation, ev«n if they were banished en masse from the reformed House of Lords, and there •would be ambitious spirits on the other side to whom, the opportunity would be equally welcome. As a haven for a man who is feeling the strain of active service in the democratic arena, but has stall the will and the faculty to serve the State unimpaired, the merits of the House of Lords are obvious to everybody; but the other side of the picture — the extinguisher which it places upon the activities of a man who, if he had not had the misfortune to be born in the purple, might have shone as a democratic leader in the true sphere for the exercise of responsible power — is not so readily seen. jAs a Peer's son he may, on his own merits, have been winning! a front place "in the thronged fields where winning' comes by strife," but when he succeeds to the title he is removed to another sphere where, though the air may be severer and more dignified, the difficulties of exercising the functions of a popular leader are becoming greater and greater every year. In his younger days Lord Rosebery used often to chafe at the restraints of his position, and when in the prime of his powers he succeeded to the Premiership he found them still more irksome and galling : Pomp affords no mitigation Of the cankering vexation Of a democrat condemned to sit upßtalrs— was the sentiment which Mr. C. L. Graves at that time put into Lord Bosebery's mouth, and nothing could have been more appropriate. "The untimely fall of the Rosebery Administration might hawe been considerably postponed if its leader had not been compelled to exercise power from a station so far removed from the political centre of gravity. It is surely 'fitting that any Rosebery or Salisbury of the future should be free to strip himself, if he likes, of his political privileges as an aristocrat, and "enter into a competition without handicap of any kind with his untitled fellows." The aristocracy, the democracy, and the whole State would gain by thua throwing all the prizes in the political race open to the unembarrassed competition of talent of every degree on equal terms. But must not the canon of equality carry the case a good deal further than Lord Lansdowne has ventured to take it? He has abated by more than 60 per cent, the traditional claim of heredity to dominate the Upper House; and he has conceded to every Peer the right to compete for a seat in the House of. Commons if he is so minded. Why not, then, be logical — abolish every claim to political power based on hereditary privilege, and throw every seat in the House of Xords open to the competition of the •Commons? This is clearly what the Government has in contemplation, 'for the preamble of the Parliament Bill speaks not of the modification of the rights of heredity, but of the substitution of a representative for a hereditary basis. It has been conceded in general terms by more than one of the Opposition leaders that the reformed House of Lords should be such as to give the measures ft of both parties an equal chance, but Lord Lansdowne himself admits that his Bill does not go so far as that. If it goes far enough to shat•ter the Divine right of heredity, but not far enough to satisfy the democratic ideal of equality, has it not set the House of Lords on a toboggan slide which allows no resting place except at the bottom? The Morning Post has been harping very candidly on the difficulties of a constitutional party which once starts playing tricks with the Constitution, and Lord Lansdowne's Bill, thought its proposals are in many respects excellent, supplies a striking •example of this fact.

fChough tlje extension of the Karori tramline to Karori Park is to be inspected by the Public Works Department this afternoon, there is no certainty of the line being open for public service tomorrow. Should the new tramtyay be passed 1 by the department, an announcement Trill be made as to whether the line will be useH for transporting the publio on Saturday, or not.