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| 1 | 236 | 472 | 708 | 944 |
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blue ribbon of the Golden Fleece; to counterbalance the Duke de la
Tremoille, the most ancient peer of the court, with the Duke Uzès, the
most ancient peer of the Parliament; to claim as many pages and horses
to their carriages as an elector; to be called monseigneur by the
first President; to discuss whether the Duke de Maine dates his peerage
as the Comte d'Eu, from 1458; to cross the grand chamber diagonally, or
by the side--such things were grave matters. Grave matters with the
Lords were the Navigation Act, the Test Act, the enrolment of Europe in
the service of England, the command of the sea, the expulsion of the
Stuarts, war with France. On one side, etiquette above all; on the
other, empire above all. The peers of England had the substance, the
peers of France the shadow.
To conclude, the House of Lords was a starting-point; towards
civilization this is an immense thing. It had the honour to found a
nation. It was the first incarnation of the unity of the people: English
resistance, that obscure but all-powerful force, was born in the House
of Lords. The barons, by a series of acts of violence against royalty,
have paved the way for its eventual downfall. The House of Lords at the
present day is somewhat sad and astonished at what it has unwillingly
and unintentionally done, all the more that it is irrevocable.
What are concessions? Restitutions;--and nations know it.
"I grant," says the king.
"I get back my own," says the people.
804
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