Excerpt from The Nature and Origin of the House of Lords

Ment; in every free state there must be both some kind of executive government and some kind of popular assembly. It does not follow that either need take the exact shape which they take among 0 selves, but both must exist in some shape. Without the House of Commons, or some other assembly of the same kind, there could not be freedom without the Crown or some other power to do its work, there could not be order. But it is at least conceivable that both freedom and order might go ou, although the House of Lords were abolished and no other power of any kind put in its place. In other words, the House of Lords is not practically on a level with the other two powers. The other two are essential. The House of Lords may be venerable, it may be ornamental, it may even be highly useful but it is not essential. It might be swept away and nothing put in its place without a return to chaos. If we swept away either of the other powers and did not put something else in its place, chaos would return. Something like this line of thought is silently implied in what is in itself so singular a phenomenon as the present demand for abolition or sweeping change in one of the great powers of the State, and that on the ground of a single vote which has given offence. It is not said that the vote is either illegal or unprecedented it can be called unconstitutional only in a somewhat strained sense of that flexible word. The House gives offence, and it is at once either to be de stroyed or to have its distinguishing constitution altogether changed In itself this seems somewhat hasty dealing. No doubt this one vote is in truth rather the occasion than the cause of an indignation so deeply felt. The real cause is not this vote taken by itself, but this vote coming after a long series of other votes. Yet it is certain that, up to the time of the present vote, there was no violent or outspoken popular feeling against the House of Lords. There may have been a deep or a widespread feeling; but if so, it was so deep or so wide that it did not come to the surface. We may be quite sure that, if the Lords had passed the Franchise Bill, even by a small majority, there would have been no cry for the abolition or the sweeping reform of their House, at least till they gave offence about some other matter. The cause may, and doubtless does, lie much deeper than the occasion but the occasion has at least been startling in the suddenness of the results which it has called forth.

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