"
"The chief object of your first Reform Bill was that of realising
the very fact of representation. Up to that time your members of
the House of Commons were in truth deputies of the Lords or of
other rich men. Lord A, or Mr. B, or perhaps Lady C, sent whom she
pleased to Parliament to represent this or that town, or
occasionally this or that county. That absurdity is supposed to be
past, and on evils that have been cured no one should dwell. But
how is it now? I have a list, in my memory, for I would not care to
make out so black a catalogue in legible letters,--of forty members
who have been returned to the present House of Commons by the
single voices of influential persons. What will not forty voices do
even in your Parliament? And if I can count forty, how many more
must there be of which I have not heard?" Then there was a voice
calling upon the Senator to name those men, and other voices
denying the fact. "I will name no one," said the Senator. "How
could I tell what noble friend I might put on a stool of repentance
by doing so." And he looked round on the gentlemen on the platform
behind him. "But I defy any member of Parliament here present to
get up and say that it is not so." Then he paused a moment. "And if
it be so, is that rational? Is that in accordance with the theory
of representation as to which you have all been so ardent, and
which you profess to be so dear to you? Is the country not
over-ridden by the aristocracy when Lord Lambswool not only
possesses his own hereditary seat in the House of Lords, but also
has a seat for his eldest son in the House of Commons?"
Then a voice from the back called out, "What the deuce is all that
to you?"
CHAPTER XXIV
The Senator's Lecture.
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