Dealing with the opponents of the Budget, Mr. Burns observed
that "even a Duke should be handled with some degree of pitiful compassion," and that the Lords were "always on the side of dogma and drink." The only reason for their rejecting the Budget was "selfish panic." They were "the victims of a sordid fear, a squalid belief that this Budget interferes with the ownership and proper taxation of property Their hostility was a selfish anticipation of their future contribution to the common burdens." He had voted in five hundred and six divisions out of five hundred and forty for the Budget—a record for the Cabinet—and he never believed the 'Lords would reject it. "That is the Teason why I was not sooner in this fight." The struggle could only end in one way. To the will of the Commons the Lords must bend or they would end. But for the inveterate snobbery of the English people the House of Lords would have gone long ago. Mr. Burns spoke again on Wednesday, and denounced Mr. Blatchford as a war-mongering Socialist on the rampage and a mischievous," wanton firebrand.
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