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    Untitled Article

    Nothing , can preserve it / as a body of legislators , from contempt or odium * but an extraordinary portion of legislative talent . Will the possession of the " appropriate intellectual aptitude" be the principle of nomination ? That will never do . The illustrious by descent , the affluent in circumstances , the successful in warfare , are the natural claimants of honorary title . They will either be peers by the King ' s appointment , or demagogues

    by their own disappointment . The prerogative will be exercised in the con * stant dilemma of promoting incapacity or creating discontent . With an hereditary peerage we overlook the absurdity of making a man a legislator because he knows how to manoeuvre a ship or a regiment . It is the peerage to which he is elevated ; the legislative privilege is only an adjunct ; if he do not excel in it , his son or grandson may ; they will be brought up to it ; and so let him wear the wreath he has won . In a life-peerage , the case is

    different . The legislative function stands out , as the work to which the nominee is delegated . He is not to be the father of legislators , which perr haps he might be ; but himself the legislator , which perhaps it is evident he never can be , to any good purpose whatever . A House of Lords so constituted can command no respect from the people , and afford no support to the crown . It can have only an ephemeral existence . The first political breeze will puff its cobweb frame to pieces . While writing these remarks , we receive the statement of the measure as

    matured by the Committee and returned by them to the Chamber . It has undergone improvement in two particulars . The qualifications for

    admission into the peerage are defined and as it seems to us with great propriety , distinctness , and liberality ; and it is also provided that the ' « ordonnance of nomination shall state the qualification in virtue of which each peer is chosen . " After all deductions on the score of disappointed expectations , or inconsistent appendages , we consider the fact of the French King having

    proposed , by his minister , the abolition of the hereditary peerage , as marking a step in the progress of mankind . France does not need a permanent nobility . There does not exist in that country a class of families permanently distinguished from the rest of the community by enormous wealth ,

    sounding titles , and exclusive privileges ; and why should any thing be done , or be continued , which tends towards the creation of such a class ? Where it does exist , and has long existed , as in Britain , the question assumes a different form , and involves many additional considerations , some of individual right , and some of public expediency . In France the question is a very simple one . Nevertheless , its practical solution , on the principle of utility , is a lesson for the world to receive thankfully and study

    attentively . It is a new application , a virtual though not an intentional one , of the Christian doctrine of man's common nature and universal brotherhood . It sinks one of those separate interests which are the bane of nations . It declares that there shall not exist in France a permanent body of men vested with power , and exposed to the strongest temptation of

    Untitled Article

    Politics of the Month . fQ 5

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1831, page 705, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2602/page/53/