STATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 397 



impossible that, with such a House of Commons, they can retain 

 office for one short week. We are aware they may, on their first 

 defeat in the Commons, dissolve parliament ; but that will only 

 make matters worse. It is true, they may by |that means prolong 

 their term of power for six or eight weeks longer, but that will 

 only serve to render their discomfiture more complete on the meeting 

 of a new parliament ; for, if the present be dissolved by the Con- 

 servatives, the circumstance will have the effect of kindling a feeling 

 of indignation at their conduct throughout the country, which must 

 lead to the return of a much greater number of Liberals than if the 

 dissolution had taken place under the auspices of Lord Melbourne. 



The sum and substance of the matter, we take to be this : — 

 The Peers, by their reckless and infatuated conduct, will interpose a 

 temporary obstruction to Irish Corporation Reform, and other 

 liberal measures ; but the obstruction will be certainly and for ever 

 removed ; the country will therefore be gainers in the end. To 

 what extent the Peers will be losers, is a question which a short time 

 will suffice to decide. Lord Melbourne may be out of office in a 

 week or two ; before the lapse of a couple of months he will be 

 restored to it, never again to be ejected by Tory stratagem or 

 Tory force. 



We regret, on account of the Peers themselves, that they should 

 resolutely persevere in a course which must inevitably end in their 

 own detruction. We have not failed to warn them of their dan- 

 ger ; but our word of friendly admonition has been lost upon them. 

 May we yet hope that before these sheets have issued from the 

 press they will have seen their eri'or, and relinquished their opposi- 

 tion to the Irish Municipal Corporation Bill ? 



