294 THE LORDS, THE COMMONS, AND THE PEOPLE. 



fore them, and that that course is one of a very decided character. Webe- 

 lieve it is at this moment an undecided question whether the bill shall 

 be unceremoniously rejected on the second reading, or whether it shall 

 be suffered to go into committee, and there be mutilated to such an 

 extent as that its framers shall not be able to recognize their own 

 handiwork. The more ultra part of their Lordships — the Newcastles, 

 the Limericks, the Winchelseas, the Rodens, &c. — are for the former 

 course. The more prudent of the Peers — the Wellingtons, the Lynd- 

 hursts, the Ellenboroughs, &c. — are decidedly in favour of the latter. 

 So far as the result is concerned it matters not which be eventually 

 adopted ; the issue will be the same in either case. The measure will 

 be so mangled in committee, should it get that length, as to be, to all 

 intents and purposes, tantamount to its formal rejection on the second 

 reading. Indeed, we hold the mutilation of the bill in committee — 

 keeping in our mind's eye the extent to which that mutilation will be 

 carried — as incomparably the worse of the two evils ; because it will only 

 be trifling with the nation's feelings by holding out hopes of a fair and 

 dispassionate consideration of the principles of the measure, while the 

 extraction of every thing popular from it has been fully resolved on 

 before hand. 



We regret the determination to which the House of Lords have come 

 on this subject ; because we are not, and never were, among those who 

 have sought the annihilation of that branch of the Legislature. Our 

 most anxious wish, on the contrary, is, and always has been, to see it 

 in so much harmony with the spirit of the age — we do not mean with 

 the spirit of that reckless class of Reformers who would destroy, with- 

 out one particle of remorse, the best and most venerable institutions 

 of the country ; but with the spirit of those who would modify and 

 reform that they may preserve — our wish, we say, always has been 

 to see the House of Lords acting to such an extent in harmony with 

 the spirit of the age as to secure the homage and respect of all classes 

 of their fellow-subjects. 



The determination of the Lords to reject the Irish Municipal Cor- 

 poration Reform Bill is at once unreasonable itself, and will be found 

 most injurious in its consequences to their order. Their opponents 

 pronounce them to be blind and infatuated. We are sure they are 

 not so to such an extent as to be ignorant of the peril into which they 

 brought themselves, as a distinct branch of the Legislature, by the mu- 



