Lord Brabourne then attempted to give some notion of the
anguish it cost him to vote against this Bill and the Government; and Lord Rosebery expressed his deep sympathy with the unfortunate Baron, whose coronet must be to him a crown of thorns, since it was his consistent and miserable fate to be compelled on all occasions to vote against the Government. Lord Rosebery insisted on the melancholy figure which the Lords would present if, on some future occasion, they accepted the Bill which they now intended to reject ; and he predicted that in all probability they would do so. Before the Bill came up again, Lord Cairns's army would have melted away. " Some would have listened to the dictates of reason. Some would have been satisfied with one rejection. Some would have married wives ; son'e would have bought oxen ; there would be a falling away." If the con- noisseur who, the other day, paid £1,500 for an elaborate and costly horn, were to use it to poke the fire with, he would not do a sillier thing than Lord Salisbury in using that ancient House to poke up a great conflagration in the country.
