| Page 54 THE HOUSE OF LORDSProperty has always been the basis of the upper
chamber. Queen Victoria put her finger on the two chief qualifications
for elevation to the peerage when she gave her reasons for consenting
to four recommendations from Disraeli as being that "they
seem all unobjectionable people with large fortunes."(1) Property
is still adequately represented in the House of Lords, for we find
that there were 246 landowners in the House in 1931, while directors
of banks numbered 67, railways 64, engineering works 49, and insurance
companies 112, to name only a few.(2) In 1922, 227 peers owned
a known acreage of 7,362,000, or an average of 32,400 acres each.
There were then 425 directorates held by 272 Lords representing
761 companies.(3) It is hardly surprising that according to the
late Duke of Northumberland "the House is more representative
of all the important interests in the country than the House of
Commons."(4) But it is the Marquess of Salisbury who has made
the most ambitious claims for the House of Lords. He has said that "they
will always accept the considered judgment of the nation when once
that has really been ascertained. ... It requires considerable
training and experience to know what the considered judgment of
the people is. They (the Lords) have that tradition."(5)
This is one of those adaptations of the British Constitution. What
justification is there in the activities of the House for Lord
Salisbury's claim? Seldom indeed is any reference made is the course
of debate on specific measures to this notion |
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