of this house
may be shaken. The influence which your lordships possess in the
representation of sixty-five old boroughs may be taken from you by this
bill, but the peers and the landed interest are not thereby deprived of
their influence in the representation--on the contrary, that influence
is increased." Earl Grey proceeded to contend that the measure had
received the approbation of the country. He was, he said, one of the
last men in that house who would grant anything to intimidation, and
he would say, "Resist popular violence, and do not give way to popular
commotion," but here there was neither violence nor commotion. The
opinion of the people was fairly and unequivocally expressed, and
no government could turn a deaf ear to it, and least of all could a
government founded on free principles take such a step. The time was
passed for taking half-measures; their lordships must either adopt this
bill, or they would have in its stead something infinitely stronger and
more extensive. The measure was brought forward at the recommendation of
the crown; it had been carried by an overwhelming majority of the other
house, and it was supported by the prayers of millions, who respectfully
knocked at their lordships' door, and asked, for that which they
considered to be the restoration of their just rights. Were their
lordships prepared to reject a bill so supported, and that, too, on its
second reading? He would venture for a moment, he continued, to address
himself to the right reverend prelates who sat near him. While he
assured that body that no man was more sincerely attached than he was to
the maintenance of all the rights and privileges of the church--no man
held in higher veneration the purity of its doctrine and discipline--no
man was more ready to admit the zeal, and learning, and piety of those
who presided over it,--let him at the same time ask, that if this bill
be rejected by a narrow majority of the lay peers, and if its fate
should thus within a few votes be decided by the votes of the heads of
the church, what would then be their situation with the country? Those
right reverend prelates had shown that they were not indifferent or
inattentive to the signs of the times; they had introduced measures for
effecting some salutary reforms in matters relating to the temporalities
of the church, let them be implored to follow up the same course. The
eyes of the country were upon them; he called upon them to "set their
h