l excuse me for not
wishing to agitate it. I give you complete credit for the sincerity of
your convictions; extend the same confidence to me. You are democrats;
I am an aristocrat. My family has been ennobled for nearly three
centuries; they bore a knightly name before their elevation. They have
mainly and materially assisted in making England what it is. They have
shed their blood in many battles; I have had two ancestors killed in the
command of our fleets. You will not underrate such services, even if you
do not appreciate their conduct as statesmen, though that has often been
laborious, and sometimes distinguished. The finest trees in England
were planted by my family; they raised several of your most beautiful
churches; they have built bridges, made roads, dug mines, and
constructed canals, and drained a marsh of a million of acres which
bears our name to this day, and is now one of the most flourishing
portions of the country. You talk of our taxation and our wars; and of
your inventions and your industry. Our wars converted an island into
an empire, and at any rate developed that industry and stimulated those
inventions of which you boast. You tell me that you are the delegates
of the unrepresented working classes of Mowbray. Why, what would Mowbray
have been if it had not been for your aristocracy and their wars? Your
town would not have existed; there would have been no working classes
there to send up delegates. In fact you owe your every existence to
us. I have told you what my ancestors have done; I am prepared, if the
occasion requires it, not to disgrace them; I have inherited their great
position, and I tell you fairly, gentlemen, I will not relinquish it
without a struggle."

"Will you combat the people in that suit of armour, my lord?" said one
of the delegates smiling, but in a tone of kindness and respect.

"That suit of armour has combated for the people before this," said Lord
Valentine, "for it stood by Simon de Montfort on the field of Evesham."

"My lord," said the other delegate, "it is well known that you come from
a great and honoured race; and we have seen enough to-day to show that
in intelligence and spirit you are not unworthy of your ancestry. But
the great question, which your lordship has introduced, not us, is not
to be decided by a happy instance. Your ancestors may have done great
things. What wonder! They were members of a very limited class which had
the monopoly of action. And