Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1907 — Function of the House of Lords. [ARTICLE]

Function of the House of Lords.

The antiquated constitution of the house of lords and its comparative neglect of Its duties irritate-modern reformers both theoretical and practical and have led them often to call for its overthrow. But at the bottom of this charge of obsoleteness and Inefficiency Is the fear that the peers may take it Into their heads to be energetic and Industrious, constant In attendance and active In operation. If they were so—if the lords chose to be as vigorous as they were In 1680 or 1782 or even In 1807 and 1832—the democratic element In the United Kingdom would have had hard work to complete the change which It has carried so far and longs to carry farther. What the lords can do now was shown by Gladstone’s home rule bill. Ills Immense personal influence and the fear of an Irish revolt, added to no small amount of serious conviction, forced the bill through the commons. The lords met in numbers scarcely known for a lifetime. The case was put on both sides with great force and with that serious, lofty, high bred eloquence that has never become extinct In the upper house during many centuries. The bill was rejected by an Immense majority, and the friends of the measure had the satisfaction of knowing that the verdict of England was against them and with the peers, and not a few voices raised the cry which is heard at steadily recurring Intervals, "Thank God we have a house of lords!”—William Everett In Atlantic.