selected; for a defeat might be fatal. The Lords must wait for
some occasion on which their privileges would be bound up with
the privileges of all Englishmen, for some occasion on which the
constituent bodies would, if an appeal were made to them, disavow
the acts of the representative body; and this was not such an
occasion. The enlightened and large minded few considered tacking
as a practice so pernicious that it would be justified only by an
emergency which would justify a resort to physical force. But, in
the many, tacking, when employed for a popular end, excited
little or no disapprobation. The public, which seldom troubles
itself with nice distinctions, could not be made to understand
that the question at issue was any other than this, whether a sum
which was vulgarly estimated at millions, and which undoubtedly
amounted to some hundreds of thousands, should be employed in
paying the debts of the state and alleviating the load of
taxation, or in making Dutchmen, who were already too rich, still
richer. It was evident that on that question the Lords could not
hope to have the country with them, and that, if a general
election took place while that question was unsettled, the new
House of Commons would be even more mutinous and impracticable
than the present House. Somers, in his sick chamber, had given
this opinion. Orford had voted for the bill in every stage.
Montague, though no longer a minister, had obtained admission to
the royal closet, and had strongly represented to the King the
dangers which threatened the state. The King had at length
consented to let it be understood that he considered the passing
of the bill as on the whole the less of two great evils. It was
soon clear that the temper of the Peers had undergone a
considerable alteration since the preceding day. Scarcely any,
indeed, changed sides. But not a few abstained from voting.