Mr. Gladstone has acknowledged some resolutions passed at Leeds condemning
the conduct of the Lords about the Ballot in the fol- lowing terms :-*" It is scarcely needful for me to assure you that I regret alike the vote and the grounds of the vote for the rejec- tion of the Bill. Nor do I less regret its consequences, for I am mindful of the signal services which history shows to have been rendered to this country by its nobles ; of the high character, activity in duty, and wide and useful influence of very many mem- bers of that body, as well as of the serious difficulties which other countries have experienced in providing means for the discharge of the functions now intrusted to it by the Constitution. The con- duct of the Government on the point (of which the people of Leeds Lava been pleased to express their approbation) was dictated, in my opinion, by the plainest principles of duty, and I may safely assure you that they are not likely to recede from a course of action deliberately adopted by them, and approved by the House of Com- mons and the country." The word we have italicized is taken by the Tories to imply a resolution to reform the Lords, but we fear it only refers to the possibility of a conflict between the Govern- ment and the Upper House, which, for the sake of that House, the Premier regrets.
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