and a good
harvest."

"It would be a bore. Well, we will see to-morrow;" and the colleague
left the room.

"And now for these deputations," said the gentleman in Downing Street,
"of all things in the world I dislike a deputation. I do not care how
much I labour in the Closet or the house; that's real work; the machine
is advanced. But receiving a deputation is like sham marching: an
immense dust and no progress. To listen to their views! As if I did
not know what their views were before they stated them! And to put on
a countenance of respectful candour while they are developing their
exploded or their impracticable systems. Were it not that at a practised
crisis, I permit them to see conviction slowly stealing over my
conscience, I believe the fellows would never stop. I cannot really
receive these deputations. I must leave them to Hoaxem," and the
gentleman in Downing Street rang his bell.

"Well, Mr Hoaxem," resumed the gentleman in Downing Street as that
faithful functionary entered, "there are some deputations I understand,
to-day. You must receive them, as I am going to Windsor. What are they?"

"There are only two, sir, of moment. The rest I could easily manage."

"And these two?"

"In the first place, there is our friend Colonel Bosky, the members for
the county of Calfshire, and a deputation of tenant farmers."

"Pah!"

"These must be attended to. The members have made a strong
representation to me that they really cannot any longer vote with
government unless the Treasury assists them in satisfying their
constituents."

"And what do they want?"

"Statement of grievances; high taxes and low prices; mild expostulations
and gentle hints that they have been thrown over by their friends;
Polish corn, Holstein cattle, and British income tax."

"Well you know what to say," said the gentleman in Downing Street. "Tell
them generally that they are quite mistaken; prove to them particularly
that my only object has been to render protection more protective, by
making it practical and divesting it of the surplusage of odium; that
no foreign corn can come in at fifty-five shillings; that there are not
enough cattle in all Holstein to supply the parish of Pancras daily
with beef-steaks; and that as for the income tax, they will be amply
compensated for it by their diminished cost of living through the agency
of that very tariff of which they are so superficially complaining."

"Their diminished cost of livin