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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
failed to hit l 6 ng ago , had it not been veiled by the corruption of the ' Commons . So long as the born legislator ** bad a commanding influence in the appointment of the chosen legislators , there was ; itttLe to bring their own aptitude into question . It is a very different thing to have to endure a permanent contrast with the
6 bject » of popular choice . It is still worse to be regarded as a fatal obstacle to almost all the public good which is aimed at by those who are so chosen . The return of your party to power will be the death-warrant of the House of Lords . The people have madexip their minds to be efficiently represented in the House of Commons ; and they will then learn that they cannot realize that
desire while the House of Lords exists as an independent branch of the legislature . The inquiry will promptly be entered into , in abiismess-iike manner , how long your Lordships are to be allowed tofctop the way ? It is not wise in those who identify wisdom with the i security of class-interests to provoke such an inquiry ; be * camse the reverence for hereditary legislation , like some people ' s
religion , rests on faith rather than reason , and requires a considerable F prostration of the understanding . ' The notion is become popular that law-making is a work requiring no small 3 hare of ability and information to do it to any good purpose , or even to avoid the production of great mischief . It is thought that the needful talent does not come by inheritance . It is seen that even
created lords do not always owe their privileged being to the wisdom manifested by them in their pre-existent state * but to some of many thousand circumstances , quite independent , acting o « l the mind of the King their maker . It is strongly doubted whether some be born with a capacity which any education whatever can ' manufacture into a useful legislative capacity ; and it is
also strongly doubted whether the course of instruction at the Universities be at all adapted to train the very best capacities to fitness for the public service in the functions of legislation . There is also a disposition to speculate on moral influences , and inquire into the disqualifying effect of sinister interests upon those whose tarik t is professedly the promotion of the common good . It is
asked whether the Peers , as a body , have a perfect identity of ii ^» tefiesti with the community . All this is certainly theoretical ^ and as ^ uchvery likely to have been let alone by such a matter-offact people as we are : nevertheless , ever since the rejection of the Reform Bill by your House , the question has been allowed to tKMkesfe a mixed character ; and there wants nothing but another
Tory restoration to make it entirely practical and very urgent . The krgumemts , my Lord Duke , are all very simple and ready made ; they are piled \ Mp in heaps like cartridges , and are as easy to handle . There is only to distribute them ; ' prime , load , pre-6 e ^ Cflre ^ srifid there you all are ; logically , btovrh tb atom * : Now the u&iversaJ logic ; or a people UaV some force in ' & ; &a xjauch ) ft may bey as the rah * mituma of ktnga . Are you prepared for
Untitled Article
504 Warning * to the Torlt * .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1835, page 504, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2648/page/4/
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