The English Constitution the English Constitution

The use of the House of Lords or, rather, of the Lords, in its dignified capacity–is very great. It does not attract so much reverence as the Queen, but it attracts very much. The office of an order of nobility is to impose on the common people–not necessarily to impose on them what is untrue, yet less what is hurtful; but still to impose on their quiescent imaginations what would not otherwise be there.