ABSTRACT
In the ranks of the army, in the congregations of the sectaries, amongst the young men and the citizens of London, opinions in favour of both ‘church democracy and state democracy’ took root and flourished. For custom and tradition, either in ecclesiastical/constitutional things, these men had no reverence, and rejected all claims to authority which could not prove themselves valid to the individual conscience or the individual reason. It was in the exercise of its judicial powers that the House of Lords came into collision with this democratic spirit, and was exposed to an attack which began as a denial of its claim to exercise judicial rights, became next a denial of its claim to a share in legislation, and ended as a demand for the abolition of hereditary authority in general. The House of Lords, like the House of Commons, claimed and exercised the right of punishing those who spoke evil either of the House itself or its members.
