Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 5.djvu/125

 small price it is for so valuable a possession—which guards you against so great a danger. They are essentially of the people. Year by year they are recruited from the people. Every privilege, every franchise, every liberty which is gained by the people, is treasured up and guarded by those who, animated by tradition and custom, by long descent and lofty name, fear neither monarchs, nor ministers, nor men, but only the people, whose trustees they are. It is recorded of the Sultan Saladin that he always had a shroud carried before him in State procession, to remind him of the perils and the destiny of monarchs. In like manner I would advise the English people, when speculating on or deciding political questions, to bear always before their minds this great constitutional fabric of the House of Lords, and to be continually questioning and inquiring the reasons for its existence and preservation, in order that they may be perpetually reminded of the dangers to which democracies are prone.

I can not pass from this subject of the House of Lords without alluding to the other bugbear of the Radical party, the Church of England, and its connection with the State. This question will be more or less directly before you at the next election. Again I adhere to my utilitarian line of defense, and I would urge upon you not to lend yourselves too hastily to any project for the demolition of the Established Church. But I would also, in dealing with this question,