Schoolroom
He went on to remark that
in the past they had seen measures which had passed through the House of Commons Session after Session snuffed out by the House of Lords and now came the question as to what they were to do with the House of Lords. There was one suggestion which ‘ he had heard the room, but a suggestion he must confess he for one did not advocate, and that was its abolition. Now whether it was desirable to have one legislative chamber and one legislative chamber only in the country, he was not himself prepared to say. He believed the only place where he had seen only one legislative chamber was in the Kingdom of Greece. But there they saw that legislation did not go on well or smoothly. When in that country he heard many expressions of opinion upon it, and he could not say that they were all favourable to it. In the Colonies there were two legislative chambers, and he was inclined to doubt whether our country wonld be more prosperous than now if the House of Lords were entirely abolished. Another remedy suggested was some kind election, and there was no doubt such a measure would strengthen the House of Lords; but his opinion was that they did not want a strong House of Lords. He believed they would rather have weak House of Lords. A few centuries back the sovereign held the privileges and authority, and at times even over-rode the House of Commons; but at the present day, although the sovereign still possessed these privileges, no sovereign would dare to veto any Bill passed in the House of Commons. But they saw that whilst the authority of the Crown had very much diminished, that of the Lords had not. And his remedy was to limit the power of the House of Lords. (Cheers.) With regard to local self-government, seemed to him perfectly preposterous that if they required local tramway or other great improvement, they should be compelled to go up to the House of Commons to procure the necessary authority. He advocated some measure which shall give greater power of self-government to our counties. Perhaps it would be found that two three counties could work together. And with this self-government wonld come the question of the licensing reform. To his mind it was at the present time extremely unsatisfactory. There was no doubt the number of publichouses the village shonld be left to the voice of the inhabitants. (Applause.) But at the present time if was thought that more publichonses were required a village, or that a publichouse was required a village where there was not one, the inhabitants had no power to move in the matter. The power was vested the magistrates, and he contended that where the inhabitants considered there were already too many publichonses they should possess the right and power to practically say so. (Applause.) To put in possible plainer language, suppose a village contained ten publichouses, to his mind the inhabitants should have the power of saying whether three would not be sufficient, and on the other hand suppose the village only contained three publichouses, the inhabitants should have the power of saying whether that number should be raised to ten. It was the transferring the power from the Lord Lieutenant and magistrates to the people themselves, who to his mind were by far tbe best judges. That was his opinion of the proposed measure, and he did not see how it would act suicidally to the interests of the publicans; but when he spoke of the interest of publicans he spoke of a question beset with extraordinary and cnrious difficulties.to be continued……..
Bucks Herald – Saturday 31 January 1885
