[Illustration: "_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._