withhold further opposition to the bill, rather than
render the calamity of creating a great number of peers unavoidable.
But though he adopted this course, let it be understood that it was
by compulsion, and with a feeling that he never would again enjoy an
opportunity of uttering in that house one word in an independent form.
Bidding farewell to freedom of debate, let those who had brought this
infliction on the country be responsible for their acts when the nation
came to its senses. On the other hand, the Earl of Winchilsea, while
he admitted that the independence of the house was at an end, and that
their lordships might be pointed at with scorn, as belonging to a body
which went through the mockery of legislative functions while it was
denied all legislative power, expressed his determination still to offer
every possible opposition to the bill. Earl Grey had not yet stated in
what shape the power of carrying the bill had been conferred; and Lord
Wharncliffe, conceiving that before any peer could decide on the course
he would adopt, it was necessary to know, put the question direct
to him, whether their deliberations were to be carried on under the
immediate threat of a creation of peers? or whether it was to be
understood that a certain number of peers would absent themselves from
the house on the occasion of the discussions that might ensue upon the
bill? Earl Grey replied, "I do not feel myself called on to answer the
questions which have been put to me by the noble baron. I have already
stated to your lordships that I continue to hold office under the
expectation that the bill will be successfully carried in its future
stages through this house. I do not consider that the noble lord has any
right to call on me for any further explanation; and I will add, that
I wish to be bound only by what I state myself." Lord Wharncliffe
rejoined, that he could come to no conclusion as to what course he
should take until he saw more clearly the real position in which their
lordships were placed. The noble earl opposite had no right to call for
any statement as to the course his opponents meant to pursue when he
hesitated to communicate his own. The Earl of Carnarvon repeated Lord
Wharn-cliffe's question, whether it was intended to create peers? but
the minister replied that it was a question which ought not to be put,
and one which he would not answer. The motion for going into committee
on Monday was agreed to.

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