Foreign News: Breathing Space

"Contents," intoned the Lord Chancellor, his full-bottomed wig flapping spaniel-eared against his plump, ashen cheeks, "will vote in the lobby to the right of the throne; not-contents to the left of the bar." As the slow mass-movement of Britain's lords temporal and spiritual to one or the other side of their august chamber was completed, the not-contents outnumbered their opponents by 238 to 95. By thus refusing to approve a House of Commons bill to abolish capital punishment (TIME, Feb. 27), the House of Lords last week flung the first direct challenge in the face of Britain's elected representatives since 1949—when...

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