ballot as likely to promote freedom from temptation to bribery, from intimidation and injustice. This amendment was rejected by such a small majority that the victory was virtually a defeat, and the Bill shortly afterwards became the law of the land. The electors who only regarded their vote as a marketable article were both depressed and elated: some spoke of it as a pecuniary deprivation, and some said, "I like this new system; I can get a bit of help from both sides and then vote as I please." The new process, I must confess, although most beneficent, is comparatively dull and tame. I go to the National schoolroom and I find three clerks sitting at a table, representing, I suppose, the Conservative, Unionist, and Radical parties. The two first smile at my arrival, the third appears unconscious of my presence. I receive my ticket, and, taken to another compartment, as though I was about to enjoy a shower bath or to ascend by a lift, I put a cross to the name of the candidate whom I support, and I return without a groan or a cheer, without any allusion to my appearance or shortcomings. Nevertheless, I rejoice in the results; they help to allay the malicious, vindictive retaliations, and make it easier for us to agree to differ. The Tories have discovered that a man may be a Radical without being a regicide, and the Radicals are conscious that certain Tories and Unionists believe that some of our venerable institutions are capable of improvement and adaptation to their present surroundings. On one subject these two parties have been, and always will be, at variance without hope of agreement-namely, which of the two should be in office. This emulation provokes and perpetuates a vigorous competition and organised system of attack and defence between those who occupy the seats of the mighty and those who desire to oust them; and there is always, in addition to this established rivalry, a number of bigots, fanatics, and faddists, who seem to regard it as their special mission to thwart their superiors and to oppose every scheme of improvement which does not exactly agree with their desires and dogmas. The political horizon is thus continally darkened by these clouds without rain, driven about by winds; but hope descries in the orient the dawn of a brighter day. It is heralded by the unanimity upon subjects of supreme importance, such as the honour of the empire and the happiness of the people, among those who think earnestly, speak temperately, and listen patiently, who may be convinced by argument even to make concessions, and to accept defeat without the constraint of the closure. The longing to "Damn Billy Pitt," or in words more appropriate to our own day, to annihilate the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, is now restricted to a few impotent folk, whose religion, although they profess Christianity, resembles more closely that of the unjust judge, who neither feared God nor regarded man ; who, pledged to loyalty, act as though they were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and by their indecent behaviour and coarse conversation, remind us more of a drunken lot of miners assembled at a dog-fight than of Christian statesmen met in council for the punishment of wickedness and vice and the maintenance of true religion and virtue. The most devoted admirers of Sir Robert Peel would not venture to assert that in his wonderful prescience he foresaw a time when the mutual courtesies which always prevail among gentlemen would be ignored in the House of Commons, but they certainly may say of him that he provided the remedy, the only remedy, for this disgraceful rowdyism when he instituted the new police. CHAPTER XIX Parties.-II. Social Alas! 'tis far from russet frieze, To silk and satin gowns ; But I doubt if God made like decrees In courtly hearts and clowns. HOOD. In our social as well as in our political intercourse great changes present themselves to the experience, and for the most part to the admiration, of the octogenarian. Some seventy years ago the higher and middle classes were separated, as it were, by a great river so broad and deep and running over, so rough on its surface, so rapid in its currents, and so steep in its banks that very few pass to and fro. It has been bridged over. The man with the pedigree and the man with the purse have met and shaken hands. Aristocracy and commerce have kissed each other. Noble lords of high degree have taken a lively interest in shares and companies, markets and manufactories, imports and exports, even in the improvements of hansom cabs and in the combinations of malt and hops. Lord Agincourt is known to be an extensive shareholder in the brewery of Messrs. Potts, and even ladies of quality have been financially and practically associated with the millinery art. This mutual accommodation and intercourse has expelled disparities and created assimilations; there have been alliances of a closer and more enduring sentiment; announcements have frequently appeared in the local newspapers that "a marriage has been arranged, and will shortly take place, between the Hon. Kempton Park, second son of Lord Sandown, and Stephanotis Alexandrina, the youngest daughter of our respected Mayor and Mayoress, Sir Jeremiah and Lady Martha Brown." The disparities to which I have referred were manifest. The sons of the nobility and landed gentry had from childhood the surroundings of refinement, the splendid education of our public schools and universities, which prove the Latin precept, Ingenuas puero didicisse fideliter artes and these, with their opportunities of travel and of acquiring information and accomplishments, together with their love of manly sports, made them, as a rule, good masters, good landlords, good magistrates, and, as they remain to this day, such a body of brave and honourable gentlemen as no other nation can show. There were disagreeable exceptions; there were, as with vicious horses, certain cases which defied the efforts of the trainer. Here and there, in different parts of the country, examples were to be seen of pride and |