"I am acquainted with some sweeps."
A certain gentleman who certainly thinks that the constitution of the country could be reorganised and set straight at once by a magazine article, says that if the House of Lords rejects the Home Rule Bill there is a very simple way to remedy the affair. Mr. Gladstone will then, he states, collect 70 sweeps and make them peers so as to gain a majority. Whether the gentleman intended to insult the sweeps or to insult the House of Lords I do not know. I am acquainted with some sweeps. I have always looked upon sweeps in the same way as I look upon licensed victuallers. They are a body of men who are carrying on a very difficult profession with credit to themselves and advantage to the country. Moreover, the sweeps with whom I am acquainted are most of them Tories, and I shall not be surprised if as soon as those 70 sweeps are collected and made peers, and have washed their faces and put on their coronets and robes, they do immediately range themselves on the Opposition side of the House, and do, as most new Gladstonian peers do, vote Conservative directly they are created.
Newport Licensed Victuallers' Dinner,
February 23rd, 1893.
[YOU CANNOT PLEASE EVERYBODY.]
I have no doubt that if the House of Lords were to pass by a large majority the disestablishment of the Welsh Church in the next Session, the Welsh party would say the hereditary principle was the only one to be depended upon. On the other hand, if the Lords were to pass by a large majority a Local Veto Bill, I have no doubt the Licensed Victuallers would at once go in for the abolition of the House of Lords.
Cardiff Licensed Victuallers' Dinner,
March 28th, 1894.
I am not a landlord myself, but I have strong opinions about the right of property, which I hope, in future legislation, will always be considered. If ever I become a landlord, I hope the interest which I have always felt in the welfare of my respected father's tenants will lead them to suppose that I shall never become such a ruffian as some people would make landlords out to be.
Monmouthshire Chamber of Agriculture,
February 25th, 1874.
I confess I was much comforted in reading one of those amiable, kind and Christian-like speeches for the total suppression of landlords. I looked into the dictionary for the meaning of the word "landlord," and I found it was "a keeper of a public-house." When I read that, my soul was comforted.