o
exert his influence to bring the majority to adopt Peel's views.
It has always been considered by the Tories an object of paramount
importance to keep their party together (this was the pretext of
Wharncliffe and Harrowby for joining in that fatal postponement of
Schedule A), and if after Peel's speech they were to refuse to
accept the fair compromise which is tendered to them, it is
impossible to suppose that he would consider himself as belonging
to them, or that they could pretend to acknowledge him as their
leader, and the Tory party would by this schism be effectually
broken up.

I have long considered the breaking up of the Tory party as a
grand desideratum, and though I earnestly desire to see a powerful
Conservative party in the country and in Parliament, it must be
one reconstructed out of materials more various and more Liberal
than that which now calls itself Conservative, but which in its
heart clings to the narrow notions and loves the exclusive system
of bygone days. The dissolution of the Tory party in the House of
Lords, by a division of them into a high and a low section, would
in itself be a reform of that House, and it is to such a
dissolution and fresh modification of parties that we must look
for a reform, which without any violent change will redress the
balance and enable the machine of government to move without
obstruction. I sat next to Senior in the House of Lords, and he
was talking of the necessity of a reform of the House of Peers,
and he said, 'I can see the steps of it very plainly.' 'What, by
making Peers for life, as you suggest in your pamphlet?' 'No, it
is too late for that now, but by the election of representatives.
When Scotland was united she sent representative Peers elected
from the body; Ireland the same. Now fifty years of Tory rule have
given such a preponderance to the Tory interest in the House of
Lords, that the balance cannot be redressed but by a creation
which would make the House of Peers too numerous for a legislative
assembly. I would therefore begin by creating, in order to
equalise the strength of the opposite parties, and then the Peers
should elect representatives.' I said, 'All this will be
unnecessary, for the Tory party will be broken up, and without a
change so startling and extensive the balance will be quietly
redressed, and in the natural order of things.' The Duc de Nemours
was under the gallery in the House of Commons, but he soon went
away, and in