While we hold that the Lords are making a mistake
in tactics, we do not wish to exaggerate the consequences which
will probably flow from their action. Though there is danger of an ugly crisis in which the country may be misled into taking the wrong side in a fit of excitement and irrita- bility, it is, we admit, more probable that the electors will treat the matter with that conservative calm, nay phlegm, which is characteristic of the English people. One must never forget that though party rhetoricians may be prancing upon a thousand platforms and intoxicating themselves and their more zealous partisans with "the exuberance of their own verbosity," the nation is quite capable of maintaining all the time a mood which does not go beyond amused serenity. "How 'e do jump about," the rustic comment on a vigorous political orator, often represents the final conclusion of the great heart of the people.
