e arrangement" (for, as he had previously
mentioned, it had been made a subject not only of objection, but of
ridicule) "can only do so from the want of due attention to the true
character of our constitution, one of the great leading advantages of
which is, that a person may for a long time be a member of one branch of
the Legislature, and have it in view to become a member of another
branch of it. This it is which constitutes the leading difference
between the nobility of Great Britain and those of other countries. With
us they are permitted to have legislative power before they arrive at
their higher stations; and as they are, like all the rest of mankind, to
be improved by experience in the science of legislation as well as in
every other science, our constitution affords them that opportunity by
their being eligible to seats in this House from the time of their
majority. This is one of those circumstances which arise frequently in
practice, but the advantages of which do not appear in theory till
chance happens to cast them before us, and makes them subjects of
discussion. These are the shades of the British constitution in which
its latent beauties consist;" and he affirmed his conviction that this
privilege would prove "an advantage to the nobility of Ireland, and an
improvement in the system of representation in the House."

It will hardly be denied that the arrangement that the representative
Peers of Ireland should enjoy their seats for life did make it desirable
that those who were not so elected to the Upper House should be eligible
as candidates for a place in the Lower House. Otherwise, those who were
not chosen as representatives of the peerage would have been placed in
the anomalous and unfair position of being the only persons in the
kingdom possessed of the requisite property qualification, and not
disqualified by sex or profession, who were absolutely excluded from the
opportunity of distinguishing themselves and serving their country in
Parliament. How great the practical benefit to the House of Commons and
the country the clause he was recommending was calculated to confer, was
shown in a remarkable manner the very year of his death, when an Irish
Peer was returned to the House of Commons, who, retaining his seat for
nearly sixty years as the representative of different constituencies,
the University of Cambridge being among the number, during the course of
that period rose through a variety of offic