esent numerical
proportions.

That is a very natural explanation of their action; but if we for our
part were to accept the assertion lately made by the House of
Lords--an assertion which is the furthest point to which aristocratic
privilege has attained in modern times--that assertion itself would
become only the starting-point for a whole new series of precedents
and of constitutional retrogressions; and worse than that, if by any
chance, having raised this issue, we were to be defeated upon it--if
having placed this Resolution on the records of the House we were to
fail to give effect to it, or were to suffer an electoral reverse as
the conclusion of it--then good-bye to the power of the House of
Commons. All that long process of advance in democratic institutions
which has accompanied the growth of the power of the House of Commons,
and which has also been attended by an expansion of the circles of
comfort and culture among the people of this country--all that long
process which has gone steadily onward for 200 years, and which has
almost exclusively occupied the politics of the nineteenth
century--will have reached its culmination. It will have come in
contact with that barrier of which we have heard so much in this
debate. The tide will have turned, and in the recoil of the waters
they will gradually leave exposed again, altered no doubt by the
conditions of the age, all the old assertions of aristocratic and
plutocratic domination which we had fondly hoped had been engulfed for
ever.

Hon. gentlemen opposite would be well advised to treat this Resolution
seriously. This Parliament is still young, but there are some things
at which they have laughed which have already become accomplished
facts, I could not have during the past eighteen months listened to
their taunts about the permanence of Chinese labour without reflecting
now with satisfaction that Chinese labour is going. Yes, and other
people may follow. We are only at the beginning of this struggle. We
are not necessarily committed to every detail of the proposal; we are
opening the first lines for a great siege, we have to sap up to the
advanced parallels, to establish our batteries, and at no distant date
open our bombardment. It may be many months before we shall be able to
discern where there is a practicable breach; but the assault will come
in due time.

The right hon. gentleman opposite[7] said he welcomed this contest
with great confidence. I won