If you were now to form such an House of Peers, it would bear, in my opinion, but little resemblance to ours, in its origin, character, or the purposes which it might answer, at the same time that it would destroy your true natural nobility.
Burke argues that a newly formed House of Peers would differ significantly from the British model.
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But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.
Of this consolation whoever deprives them deadens their industry, and strikes at the root of all acquisition as of all conservation.
In all this procedure I can discern neither the solid sense of plain dealing nor the subtle dexterity of ingenious fraud.
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