tter ruin and confusion, and now it is he who manages this Bill,
and who ventures to mutilate the Ministerial measure in such a
manner as will in all probability bring down all the wrath of the
Commons on him and his Conservative majority. I am not at all sure
but that the Government is content to exhibit its paltry numbers
in the House of Lords, in order that the world may see how
essentially it is a Tory body, that it hardly fulfils the
conditions of a great independent legislative assembly, but
presents the appearance of a dominant party-faction which is too
numerous to be affected by any constitutional process and too
obstinate to be turned from its fixed purpose of opposing all the
measures which have a tendency to diminish the influence of the
Conservative party in the country. It is impossible to look at the
disposition exhibited by this great majority and not admit that
there is very small chance of its acting harmoniously with the
present House of Commons, and that some change must take place in
order to enable Government and legislation to go on at all. It is
anything but clear that the nation desires the destruction of the
House of Lords, nor is it clear that the nation cares for its
preservation. It is, I think, exceedingly probable that a majority
of those who return members to Parliament, and in whom collectively
the supreme power really resides, though they might be content to
retain the House of Lords, if it could be made to act in harmony
with, and therefore necessarily in subordination to, the House of
Commons, would not hesitate for an instant to decree its downfall
if it became clear that there was no other way of crushing the
Tory faction which now rules triumphant in that House. At all
events the Lords are playing a desperate game; if it succeeds,
they who direct the energies of the party are great and wise men;
but what if it fail? They seem to have no answer to this but that
if they

Screw their courage to the sticking place,
It will _not_ fail.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Resistance of the Lords--Duke of Richmond--Happiness--Struggle
between Lords and Commons--Peel keeps aloof--Inconsistency of
the Whigs on the Irish Church Bill--Violent Language in the
Lords--Lord John Russell and Peel pass the Corporation Bill--
Dissolution of the Tory Party foreseen--Meeting of Peers to
consider the Amendments--King's Speech in Council on the
Milit