Great Britain is now the only country in the world that combines a democratic form of government with a second chamber of hereditary legislators, and many proposals are on foot for the reform of the House of Lords.

While the Conservatives are more anxious to change the constitution of the Upper House, and to make it a stronger and more representative assembly, the Liberals prefer that its power of veto should be abolished.

No Act of Parliament was required to abolish the veto of the Crown on Acts of Parliament, but the growth of a democratic public opinion did not prove strong enough to end the veto of the Lords on the Bills passed by a Liberal majority in the Commons, and therefore the Parliament Act was passed.
THE POPULARITY OF THE CROWN The popularity of the Crown has become increasingly wider and more general in the years that have seen the British people steadily taking up the work of self-government.

The fear of a hostile demonstration by the inhabitants of London kept William IV.

from visiting the Mansion House in 1830, and the death of that monarch in 1837 evoked no national mourning.