ain from destiny, the blind blockhead,
to mark him in his cradle a master of men. To bribe the box-keeper to
give him the best place at the show. Read the memoranda in the old hut,
which I have placed on half-pay. Read that breviary of my wisdom, and
you will see what it is to be a lord. A lord is one who has all and is
all. A lord is one who exists above his own nature. A lord is one who
has when young the rights of an old man; when old, the success in
intrigue of a young one; if vicious, the homage of respectable people;
if a coward, the command of brave men; if a do-nothing, the fruits of
labour; if ignorant, the diploma of Cambridge or Oxford; if a fool, the
admiration of poets; if ugly, the smiles of women; if a Thersites, the
helm of Achilles; if a hare, the skin of a lion. Do not misunderstand my
words. I do not say that a lord must necessarily be ignorant, a coward,
ugly, stupid, or old. I only mean that he may be all those things
without any detriment to himself. On the contrary. Lords are princes.
The King of England is only a lord, the first peer of the peerage; that
is all, but it is much. Kings were formerly called lords--the Lord of
Denmark, the Lord of Ireland, the Lord of the Isles. The Lord of Norway
was first called king three hundred years ago. Lucius, the most ancient
king in England, was spoken to by Saint Telesphonis as my Lord Lucius.
The lords are peers--that is to say, equals--of whom? Of the king. I do
not commit the mistake of confounding the lords with parliament. The
assembly of the people which the Saxons before the Conquest called
_wittenagemote_, the Normans, after the Conquest, entitled
_parliamentum_. By degrees the people were turned out. The king's
letters clause convoking the Commons, addressed formerly _ad concilium
impendendum_, are now addressed _ad consentiendum_. To say yes is their
liberty. The peers can say no; and the proof is that they have said it.
The peers can cut off the king's head. The people cannot. The stroke of
the hatchet which decapitated Charles I. is an encroachment, not on the
king, but on the peers, and it was well to place on the gibbet the
carcass of Cromwell. The lords have power. Why? Because they have
riches. Who has turned over the leaves of the Doomsday Book? It is the
proof that the lords possess England. It is the registry of the estates
of subjects, compiled under William the Conqueror; and it is in the
charge of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. To cop