What meaning are we to attach to the words "
free agents " ? We believe that by this expression Lord Lansdowne means that be will advise the Peers to yield rather than force a creation. When it has been made quite clear, as no doubt it will be made, either in the House of Commons or by other means, that the King, following the path of constitutional precedent, will accept the advice of his Ministers (the King may change his Ministers if he holds that they have lost the confidence of the country, but if he does not change them he accepts their advice, for a Ministry he must have), then no doubt the Peers will cease to be free agents in Lord Lansdowne's sense. His conditions, that is to say, will be satisfied without an :actual creation of Peers. When Cornet Joyce came to arrest Charles I. the King asked him for his warrant. The Cornet replied by pointing to the line of troopers in the courtyard. To this the King answered that he had never seen a warrant more fairly writ, and, confessing himself no longer a free agent.. yielded. When Mr. Asquith points to the list of peers which he is ready to make as his warrant--though we are bound to confess that it will not be possible to say that the warrant is very fairly writ—Lord Lansdowne will no doubt admit that the Peers have ceased to be free agents.
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