422 History of tfie Radical Party in Parliament. [1855- been a precedent fruitful of results, and it was exactly on this ground that it was successfully resisted by the majority in the House of Lords. On the 22nd of February, the House being in committee of privilege, Lyndhurst moved that, the com- mittee having examined the letters patent purporting to create the Rt. Hon. Sir James Parke, Knight, a baron of the United Kingdom for life, reported it as their opinion that neither the letters patent nor the writ of summons issued in pursuance thereof can entitle the grantee therein named to sit and vote in Parliament ; and this was carried, an amend- ment being defeated by ninety-two to fifty-seven. That the resolution was an interference with the royal prerogative was hardly denied, but the Peers were for the time masters of the situation. The reform of their House will have to be accomplished in a more direct and more thorough manner. At the close of the session, on the 25th of July, Disraeli reviewed its history for the purpose of showing how great and repeated had been the failure of the Government to carry their measures. In the course of his speech he made a declaration of the principles of his party, which, in the light of subsequent events, is sufficiently interesting. He held that to be a Conservative principle which regards the Parliamen- tary settlement of 1832 as a satisfactory settlement; that to be a Conservative principle that in any representative scheme the influence of landed property ought to be sensibly felt ; that would be a Conservative principle which would maintain the supremacy of the English and Irish Churches. Some of his statements of principle were received with ironical cheers by the Liberals ; but he turned the tables upon them when, in conclusion, he said that the Government was really pursuing a Conservative policy, and that although this would be better done by Conservatives, he called on his friends to take heart, since the Liberal party could not long exist, when its chief and selected men were in power and continued to hold office, not only without carrying Liberal principles into effect, but without even frankly avowing their profession. There were Radicals listening to this attack who could not deny some of
