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    posed should be , " Are you , or do you intend ta beooitte a ooanexion of the aristocracy ? Will you vote for tfee ^ botiikm of hereditary legislation V O'Connell is only half right . We war not with an 150 Lords * as he seems to assume ^ we war

    against the irresponsible principle of which they happen to be tjle representatives for the time being—we war against the principle of any minority making laws for a majority against the consent of that majority —we war against all authority assuming to itself the garb of a right , independent of the people ' s suffrage , and we will ever war against it , let it come in what form it may . When hereditary legislation b y the Lords shall be abolished—and that time cannot be far distant

    — -the spirit of tyranny will take , perchance , some new shapes less odious in its externals , but as pregnant with the mischievous principle . Let us once establish the only true principle that all controlling power must emanate from the people

    and be capable of being resumed by the people at certain periods or m certain emergencies , and then but little time will elapse ere we possess the best form of government and the best system of legislation which the intellect of the community is prepared to receive ; and upon the principle of human

    progression we shall then go steadily forward to the time when the general development of the moral sense of the community will for the most partsupersede the necessity for the great mass of legislation which at present cumbers our statute books . It is not in the Lords that the fault resides , it is in the Constitution

    which makes grades in political rights ; it is in making artificial distinctions subversive of the principles of nature ; making Other than personal qualities the condition for attaining powermaking power independent of desert , making the arts of pecuniary accumulation and mere physical wealth , paramount to mental excellence and high moral worth . A man may be born m the lowest condition of humanity , and by practising all the arts of chicanery and moral turpitude 5 still keeping ott the

    wind y side of the law , he may ascend to that degree of wealth ^ h ich can command titular rank , thus becoming an irresponsible law-maker . But a high-minded man , born poor and struggling with difficulties , may furnish his mind with countless Stores of knowledge , capable of conferring the highest advantages on his fellows , but for lack of comprehension m bis

    fellows , he cannot use that knowledge for their service , The constitution of his country has provided no ascending scale , ior him , and he passes his Hie in low drudgery , unknown by thqfe who would perchance worship him as abenefa ctpr were tye pkffftd in his right position . The House of Lords , being the material representatives of this evil principle , must of course t $ ; mpAe the first example of ; but there will arijpe mere ^ 9 frk afar its purification .

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    44 * PrwUtgvtfUtUnU *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1836, page 438, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2659/page/46/