re it is responsible property, which
every rate-payer in the room knows to his cost. But, gentlemen, it is
not only visible property; it is, generally speaking, territorial
property; and one of the elements of territorial property is, that it
is representative. Now, for illustration, suppose--which God
forbid--there was no House of Commons, and any Englishman,--I will
take him from either end of the island,--a Cumberland, or a Cornish
man, finds himself aggrieved, the Cumbrian says: "This conduct I
experience is most unjust. I know a Cumberland man in the House of
Lords, the Earl of Carlisle or the Earl of Lonsdale; I will go to him;
he will never see a Cumberland man ill-treated." The Cornish man will
say: "I will go to the Lord of Port Eliot; his family have sacrificed
themselves before this for the liberties of Englishmen, and he will
get justice done me."

But, gentlemen, the charge against the House of Lords is that the
dignities are hereditary, and we are told that if we have a House of
Peers they should be peers for life. There are great authorities in
favor of this, and even my noble friend near me [Lord Derby], the
other day, gave in his adhesion to a limited application of this
principle. Now, gentlemen, in the first place, let me observe that
every peer is a peer for life, as he cannot be a peer after his
death; but some peers for life are succeeded in their dignities by
their children. The question arises, who is most responsible--a
peer for life whose dignities are not descendible, or a peer for
life whose dignities are hereditary? Now, gentlemen, a peer for
life is in a very strong position. He says: "Here I am; I have got
power and I will exercise it." I have no doubt that, on the whole,
a peer for life would exercise it for what he deemed was the public
good. Let us hope that. But, after all, he might and could
exercise it according to his own will. Nobody can call him to
account; he is independent of everybody. But a peer for life whose
dignities descend is in a very different position. He has every
inducement to study public opinion, and, when he believes it just,
to yield; because he naturally feels that if the order to which he
belongs is in constant collision with public opinion, the chances
are that his dignities will not descend to his posterity.

Therefore, gentlemen, I am not prepared myself to believe that a
solution of any difficulties in the public mind on this subject is
to