The Duke of Marlborough entertained at Blenheim this day week
two thousand representatives of Conservative clubs, and they were addressed by Lord Churchill, who seemed to take great pride in the independence shown by the House of Lords in deserting the Government on one or two of the amendments moved to the Irish Land Bill,—a fact which, in his opinion, refuted absolutely the calumny that a Tory Government can carry any legislative change it proposes in the House of Lords, while a Radical Government can carry none. In our opinion, Lord Churchill's pride had very little justification. On the most critical of the issue's, the Lords shrank from maintaining their amendment, and with very good reason, because those who proposed the amendment were for the most part very much alarmed at their own audacity. When we have a thoroughly Conservative House of Commons, the amendments which the Commons decline to accept have very little chance of obtaining the sanction of the English people. And if the Lords refuse changes which the English people regard as salutary, the only result will be to imperil seriously the authority of the House of Lords.
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