hat, in reward of this their black perfidy and corruption, they may be
chosen to give rise to a new order, and to establish themselves into an
House of Lords. Do you think, that, under the name of a British
Constitution, I mean to recommend to you such Lords, made of such kind
of stuff? I do not, however, include in this description all of those
who are fond of this scheme.

If you were now to form such an House of Peers, it would bear, in my
opinion, but little resemblance to ours, in its origin, character, or
the purposes which it might answer, at the same time that it would
destroy your true natural nobility. But if you are not in a condition to
frame a House of Lords, still less are you capable, in my opinion, of
framing anything which virtually and substantially could be answerable
(for the purposes of a stable, regular government) to our House of
Commons. That House is, within itself, a much more subtle and artificial
combination of parts and powers than people are generally aware of. What
knits it to the other members of the Constitution, what fits it to be at
once the great support and the great control of government, what makes
it of such admirable service to that monarchy which, if it limits, it
secures and strengthens, would require a long discourse, belonging to
the leisure of a contemplative man, not to one whose duty it is to join
in communicating practically to the people the blessings of such a
Constitution.

Your _Tiers Etat_ was not in effect and substance an House of Commons.
You stood in absolute need of something else to supply the manifest
defects in such a body as your _Tiers Etat_. On a sober and
dispassionate view of your old Constitution, as connected with all the
present circumstances, I was fully persuaded that the crown, standing as
things have stood, (and are likely to stand, if you are to have any
monarchy at all,) was and is incapable, alone and by itself, of holding
a just balance between the two orders, and at the same time of effecting
the interior and exterior purposes of a protecting government. I, whose
leading principle it is, in a reformation of the state, to make use of
existing materials, am of opinion that the representation of the clergy,
as a separate order, was an institution which touched all the orders
more nearly than any of them touched the other; that it was well fitted
to connect them, and to hold a place in any wise monarchical
commonwealth. If I refer you to your or