present House of Commons, and that some change must take place in order to enable Government and legislation to go on at all. It is anything but clear that the nation desires the destruction of the House of Lords, nor is it clear that the nation cares for its preservation. It is, I think, exceedingly probable that a majority of those who return members to Parliament, and in whom collectively the supreme power really resides, though they might be content to retain the House of Lords, if it could be made to act in harmony with, and therefore necessarily in subordination to, the House of Commons, would not hesitate for an instant to decree its downfall if it became clear that there was no other way of crushing the Tory faction which now rules triumphant in that House. At all events the Lords are playing a desperate game; if it succeeds, they who direct the energies of the party are great and wise men; but what if it fail? They seem to have no answer to this but that if they Screw their courage to the sticking place, It will _not_ fail. CHAPTER XXIX. Resistance of the Lords--Duke of Richmond--Happiness--Struggle between Lords and Commons--Peel keeps aloof--Inconsistency of the Whigs on the Irish Church Bill--Violent Language in the Lords--Lord John Russell and Peel pass the Corporation Bill-- Dissolution of the Tory Party foreseen--Meeting of Peers to consider the Amendments--King's Speech in Council on the Militia--Lord Howick's Bitterness against the Lords--Lord Lyndhurst's Opinion of the Corporation Bill--The King's Language on the Regency--Talleyrand's View of the English Alliance--Comparison of Burke and Macintosh--The St. Leger-- Visit of Princess Victoria to Burghley--O'Connell's Progress through Scotland--Mackintosh's Life. August 19th, 1835 {p.290} [Page Head: MUNICIPAL CORPORATION BILL.]