It is a great thing to us that Sir
Samuel Bobwig, an excellent Liberal, is seated high on the bench of
justice, instead of that time-serving Conservative, Sir Alexander
McSilk. Men and not measures are, no doubt, the very life of
politics. But then it is not the fashion to say so in public places.
Mr. Gresham was determined to introduce that fashion on the present
occasion. He did not think very much of Mr. Daubeny's Bill. So
he told his friends at the Duke's house. The Bill was full of
faults,--went too far in one direction, and not far enough in
another. It was not difficult to pick holes in the Bill. But the sin
of sins consisted in this,--that it was to be passed, if passed at
all, by the aid of men who would sin against their consciences by
each vote they gave in its favour. What but treachery could be
expected from an army in which every officer, and every private, was
called upon to fight against his convictions? The meeting passed off
with dissension, and it was agreed that the House of Commons should
be called upon to reject the Church Bill simply because it was
proposed from that side of the House on which the minority was
sitting.
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