The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1910. A FARCICAL CREATION.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXV, Issue 13056, 26 April 1910, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1910. A FARCICAL CREATION.

Me Asquith is apparently engaged in a new creation. He is making Peers by the gross. Or, rather, lie is collecting the material for them. It is hinted, however, that the supply is giving' out. Ho needs five hundred, and so far he has only yarded, about three hundred 'of the number. The supply is not equal to the demand, and according to the immutable law which governs these tilings the price is certain to harden very shortly. Possibly, however, the area of his choice is too restricted and fiis standard too high. What qualifications does he exact in the applicants? If he requires only the average amount of brain now prevalent in the House of Lords he lould run iu the first two hundred men he met in the streets aiid be certain of having ichioved his object. There are men of very great ability among the hereditary legislators of the Upper House. But when the Tory drum has beaten to summon the mob to block some Liberal measure, and, they crowd up ,to vote, there are more empty heads and. vacuous faces to the •square, chain iu the House of Lords than in any other part of Great, Britain and Ireland. 'Mr Asquith is apparently endeavouring to do what he has sot out to accomplish in. a, serious and weighty manner, which seems to- prove the allegation of, his enemies that lie has no sense of humour. But, all the same it is'a comic business , he is at. To create five hundred right-up-to-date new Peers at a breath smelling of modernity and low birth, and launch them against a scandalised, horrified and mouldy hierarchy like the Lords, would oe as funny a business as was ever attempt, fed on the farcical stage. He might just as well, therefore, go the whole hog, and if the. tenantry of the frock coat and chim-' ney-pot hat shrink into their garments when asked to become Peers he might learn a lesson in recruiting from Sir John Ealstaff, who was ashamed to march through Coventry with his troop. It would be a sight for the gods to gee the brand new noble Lord Chimneysweep going into the Lords with his friends, and carrying the sacred emblems of his calling with him for defence and,assault in the groat constitutional struggle to which he would he called. All this is very flippant consider-, ing that it is directed against “one of the most glorious bulwarks of Hie British Constitution.”