during the Nineteenth Century, Chap. 3.]

*109. Earlier Projects of Reform.*--Projects for the reform of the Lords
were not unknown before 1832, but it has been since that date, and,
more particularly during the past half-century, that the reform
question has been agitated most vigorously. Some of the notable
proposals that have been made relate to the composition of the
chamber, others to the powers and functions of it, and still others to
both of these things. In respect to the composition of the body, the
suggestions that have been brought forward have contemplated most
commonly the reduction of the chamber's size, the dropping out of the
ecclesiastical members, and the substitution, wholly or in part, of
specially designated members in the stead of the members who at present
sit by hereditary right. As early as 1834 it was advocated that (p. 104)
the archbishops and bishops of the Established Church should "be
relieved from their legislative and judicial duties," and this demand,
arising principally from the Non-conformists, has been voiced
repeatedly in later years. In 1835 the opposition of the peers to
measures passed by the Commons incited a storm of popular disapproval
of such proportions that more than one of the members of the chamber
gloomily predicted the early demolition of the body, and throughout
succeeding decades the idea took increasing hold, within the
membership as well as without, that change was inevitable. In 1869 a
bill of Lord Russell providing for the gradual infiltration of life
peers was defeated on the third reading, and in the same year a
project of Earl Grey, and in 1874 proposals of Lord Rosebery and Lord
Inchiquin, came to naught. The rejection by the Lords of measures
supported by Gladstone's government in 1881-1883 brought the chamber
afresh into popular disfavor, and in 1884 Lord Rosebery introduced a
motion "that a select committee be appointed to consider the best
means of promoting the efficiency of this House," with the thought
that there might be brought into the chamber representatives of the
nation at large, and even of the laboring classes. The motion was
rejected overwhelmingly, but in 1888 it was renewed, and in that year
the Salisbury government introduced two reform bills, one providing
for the gradual creation of fifty life peerages, to be conferred upon
men of attainment in law, diplomacy, and administrative service, and
the other (popularly known as th