THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 261
influence was to obtain better terms for the dis- established Church.
Always willing to promote rational reforms, Lord Salisbury was connected this session with two measures, one of which is still urgently wanted, while the other appears to many people to be eminently reasonable. The first was the Parlia- mentary Proceedings Bill, which he introduced himself. The object of this measure was to do away with the hard and fast rule that all Bills must be passed through both Houses of Parlia- ment in the same session, and to provide that, subject to the assent of the Crown and of the two Houses, any Bill which had passed through one House might be considered by the other House in the following session. This Bill was read a second time in the Lords, and referred to a joint committee of the two Houses, but the Government were not interested in the subject and it was allowed to drop.
The other measure, to which Lord Salisbury gave strong support, was Lord Russell's Bill for the Creation of Life Peerages. He believed that such a reform would strengthen the House of Lords in the opinion of the public, who, then as now, are easily caught by the absurd cry that the Peers are " not representative." " We must try," he said, " to impress on the country the fact that because we are not an elective House, we are not a bit the less a representative House ; and not until the constitution of the House plainly reveals the fact, shall we be able to retain
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