‘I am sure I cannot, ‘said Lord Monmouth, ‘though six of them belong to myself.’
‘But the principle,’ said Mr. Rigby; ‘they represented a principle.’
‘Nothing else, certainly,’ said Lucian Gay.
‘And what principle?’ inquired Sidonia.
‘The principle of nomination.’
‘That is a practice, not a principle,’ said Sidonia. ‘Is it a practice that no longer exists?’
‘You think then,’ said Lord Eskdale, cutting in before Rigby, ‘that the Reform Bill has done us no harm?’
‘It is not the Reform Bill that has shaken the aristocracy of this country, but the means by which that Bill was carried,’ replied Sidonia.
‘Physical force?’ said Lord Eskdale.
‘Or social power?’ said Sidonia.