landed gentlemen of England. It seems to me clear, therefore,
that we ought, notwithstanding what has passed in the other
House, to adhere to our opinion concerning the Reform Bill.

The next question is this; ought we to make a formal declaration
that we adhere to our opinion? I think that we ought to make
such a declaration; and I am sure that we cannot make it in more
temperate or more constitutional terms than those which my noble
friend asks us to adopt. I support the Resolution which he has
proposed with all my heart and soul: I support it as a friend to
Reform; but I support it still more as a friend to law, to
property, to social order. No observant and unprejudiced man can
look forward without great alarm to the effects which the recent
decision of the Lords may possibly produce. I do not predict, I
do not expect, open, armed insurrection. What I apprehend is
this, that the people may engage in a silent, but extensive and
persevering war against the law. What I apprehend is, that
England may exhibit the same spectacle which Ireland exhibited
three years ago, agitators stronger than the magistrate,
associations stronger than the law, a Government powerful enough
to be hated, and not powerful enough to be feared, a people bent
on indemnifying themselves by illegal excesses for the want of
legal privileges. I fear, that we may before long see the
tribunals defied, the tax-gatherer resisted, public credit
shaken, property insecure, the whole frame of society hastening
to dissolution. It is easy to say, "Be bold: be firm: defy
intimidation: let the law have its course: the law is strong
enough to put down the seditious." Sir, we have heard all this
blustering before; and we know in what it ended. It is the
blustering of little men whose lot has fallen on a great crisis.