Show TIT THE D HO HOUSE USE OF LOUS CHECKS IT HAS RECEIVED AT THE HANDS OF THE COMMONS COMMON the long Parl lamet int lint the out 11 of es e altogether a f or of years Boling brokes wity with the lie noble lorl lords here is an idea in tho the minds of very many pers persons ons that tho the british house of 0 lords Is supreme and can do pretty well what it pleases this however Is 18 a I ml mistake stale on several notable occasions 1 their boblo lordships lord ships havo have been paralyzed and have got lot very much the worst of it in lit stormy arguments with the gentlemen of the house of commons the first occasion on which this happened wag was when the peers ventured to differ d with the long parliament which was w as at the time engaged in a life lift and death struggle with charles 1 I tho the commons on this occasion wasted no valuable thue in talking but promptly abolished the lords altogether and turned them thern archbishops arch bishops dukes belted C d earls e t ra t and a D d all the rest of the t b 0 gorgeous coroneted crowd into the street the gilded chamber was vacant for half a dozen years or so the country got on without any house 0 of lords all the checks the house of lords have received have not been of such a drastic nature as this of course various ministries finding flandin that the peers were unwilling to pass their proposed bills have resorted to the threat to create enough new peers to samp the house of lords these new now peers would of course have been pledged beforehand to vote tor for the ministry creating them in 1711 the prime minister of tho the day the daring and unscrupulous viscount bolingbroke was anxious to terminate the desolating and ruinous war with france which bad had been raging on and off for twenty years to effect this purpose he had drawn up the treaty of utrecht it was necessary at that time that lords and commons should agree to a treaty trealy before it would become valid the commons assented to the treaty but the lords declared that they would have none of it and that the war must go on whereupon bolingbroke coolly but firmly informed them that rather than eee see himself defied by them be he would create a whole army aminy of new peers to vote tote for the treaty tho story goes that he be had bad a regiment of the life guards paraded under the windows of the house of lords and threatened to make every trooper into a noble lord if driven to it lie ile did make twelve new peers and then the lords gavern gave in the liberal government of 1832 18 with earl grey as prime minister used the same threat they wished to pass tho the first reform bill the lords bated hated this bill bitterly until then they had been practically an oligarchy with all the real power in their hands tho the franchise had been so limited that only rich men and gen brally era ily only the no nominee ininee of some great r noble nobleman nob lemau maii could get into parliament tho reform bill altered that it gave the thes smaller men inen a chance the lords expressed their deliberate intention of wrecking the bill earl grey retorted by extorting from king william IV who 11 like ll ke ro torm form bills but dared not oppose the wish of tho nation for fear ofa revolution lution permission to call u up to the house of lords as many new peers as should be ile necessary to carry his bill the mere threat was enough for the lords they had no wish to see their order made cheap and ridiculous as would have been the case had peers become as plentiful as blackberries it used to be the custom in the british army for all officers commissions to be purchased that is an officer instead of getting into the army by means of a competitive examination and rising by merit camo came straight from school without knowing anything of tho the new now duties tie e was about to assume and had a commission bought for him after that instead of being promoted as a reward for his services he be used to buy each promotion if it be he bad no money his chances of being promoted were about a thousand to one the result was that officers who had grown gray in the service and fought in many battles remained subordinates all their lives while white the sons ions of wealthy families who had not seen a quarter of their service jumped over their heads by having their way purchased up for them to be colonels and generals mr air gladstone decided to do away with purchase system the lords did not wish it to bo be abolished consequently when mr gladstone introduced a bill to abolish purchase in fhe army the bouse house of lords was not ds disposed to give it a kind reception they throw out th bill and imagined that they had bad won a glorious victory but air gladstone found that i t queen victoria had the power to abolish purchase in the army by her own act it if she pleased he induced the queen to do this by means of a royal warrant and the house of lords could no more interfere with a royal war raut than they could knock the dome off oty st pauls by throwing their coronets at it pearsons sons london weekly |