A hundred years ago
twin 'Spectator', 11 July 1868—A good deal of the talk in which some Liberals are indulging to their constituents about the House of Lords is very vague, and some of it is not a little silty. There is no probability whatever that the Lords will resist or attempt to resist the ascertained wilt of the nation, even upon a subject which so deeply enlists their prejudices as the Irish Church. They know perfectly well, perhaps better than many Liberal orators and journalists, that a couple of hundred gentlemen, however rich or however highly placed, cannot, without material force behind them. set themselves against a whole people with any prospect of success. If the elections show a tolerable equality of opinion, they will no doubt throw a casting-vote on the wrong side; but if the majority is a great one, greater than that of the present session, they will yield, just as the clergy themselves will, to irresistible power. It is quite useless, therefore, for Liberals to go about uttering vague threats as to what will happen to the Lords if they presume to oppose the nation; for they have no intention of presuming or opposing either, and if they had would be very little moved by the threats.
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