Lord Harlington insisted on the perfect willingness of the Liberal
Unionists to sacrifice themselves altogether for the sake of the end they had in view. He did not think that any numerical loss of power in Parliament,—not even their dwindling away as a Parliamentary body,—would diminish their great influence in the country, an influence exerted over the policy of the Conservatives both positively and negatively, to snake them propose Liberal measures, and to hold them back from such follies as trifling with Protection. A temporary return to Protection, mischievous beyond all doubt as it must be, would be a lees, and a much more remediable, misoliief than the break- up of the English Constitution ; yet he did not doubt that Conservative statesmen were far too much in earnest to allow them to concede any practical influence to their Protectionist supporters. He believed that the influence of the Liberal Unionists in the country, though not necessarily in Parliament, was growing rapidly, and would continue to grow.
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