A long time was needed to arrive at the conclusion that coercion of opinion is a mistake, and only a part of the world is yet convinced.

And this was, in fact, Lord Grey's contention: that a crisis had arisen in which compulsion must be exercised on one or other of the disagreeing parties; and that coercion of the peers by an augmentation of their number, or a threat of it, was the only compulsion practicable.

They were instructed to be candid and explicit in stating the sensations which had been excited in the Executive, and his earnest wish to avoid a resort to coercion; to represent, however, that, without submission, coercion must be the resort; but to invite them, at the same time, to return to the demeanor of faithful citizens, by such accommodations as lay within the sphere of Executive power.

We are told that coercion will be civil war; and so is a mob civil war, till it is put down.

Coercion was bad policy to use in his case.