all have the reversion of
your honours when death vacates your noble shoes.'"

J.H. Bernard, in his "Theory of the Constitution" (1835), was no less
emphatic:--

"As the affair is managed now, the peerage, though sometimes bestowed as
the reward of merit, on men who have adorned particular professions, is yet
much more frequently--nine times out of ten--employed by the minister of
the day as his instrument to serve particular views of public policy; and
is often given to actual demerit--to men who hire themselves out to do his
commands through thick and thin. The peerage is now full of persons who
have obtained possession of it by disreputable means."

But in spite of satire and hostile criticism members of the House of Lords
have always enjoyed a considerable social popularity. They are widely
esteemed for their titles, even by those who denounce hereditary
legislators and desire to abolish the Second Chamber.

Disraeli created six new peers in 1867-8, and seventeen more from 1875 to
1880, in addition to conferring the earldom of Beaconsfield on himself. Yet
Disraeli had written in "Coningsby" (1844):--

"We owe the English peerage to three sources: the spoliation of the Church,
the open and flagrant sale of its honours by the elder Stuarts, and the
borough-mongering of our own times. Those are the three main sources of the
existing peerage of England, and, in my opinion, disgraceful ones."

Gladstone made fifty peers in his four premierships, and Mr. Herbert Paul,
the Liberal historian of "Modern England," makes the following comments:--

"No minister since Pitt had done so much as Mr. Gladstone to enlarge and
thereby to strengthen the House of Lords.

"Mr. Gladstone was lavish in his distribution of peerages, and rich men who
were politically active, either in the House of Commons or behind the
scenes, might hope to be rewarded with safe seats elsewhere."

[Illustration: THE PASSING OF THE PARLIAMENT BILL IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS

_From the Drawing by S. Begg._]

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman exceeded all previous records of the last
century by making twenty new peers in less than two years--1905 to
1907--and Mr. Asquith maintained this vigorous policy by thirteen new
creations in the first year of his premiership. Already many of these
peers, whose titles are not more than six years old, vote with the
Conservatives. Great Britain is now the only country in the world that
combines a democratic form of governme