beaten candidate could
not affect the status of the elected members, he replied that all
the beer consumed in Percycross during the election had not, to the
best of his belief, affected a vote. The Percycrossians were not men
to vote this way or that because of beer! He would not believe it
even in regard to a Liberal Percycrossian. It might be so in other
boroughs, but of other boroughs he knew absolutely nothing. Who paid
for the beer? Mr. Trigger at once acknowledged that it was paid for
out of the general funds provided for the election. Who provided
those funds? There was not a small amount of fencing on this point,
during the course of which Mr. Joram snapped very sharply and very
frequently at the counsel on the other side,--hoping thereby somewhat
to change the issue. But at last there came out these two facts,
that there was a general fund, to which all Conservatives might
subscribe, and that the only known subscribers to this fund were
Mr. Griffenbottom, Sir Thomas Underwood, and old Mr. Pile, who had
given a L10 note,--apparently with the view of proving that there
was a fund. It was agreed on all hands that treating had been
substantiated; but it was remarked by some that Baron Crumbie had
not been hard upon treating in other boroughs. After all, the result
would depend upon what the Baron thought about Mr. Glump. It might be
that he would recommend further inquiry, under a special commission,
into the practices of the borough, because of the Glump iniquities,
and that he should, nevertheless, leave the seats to the sitting
members. That seemed to be Mr. Trigger's belief on the evening of the
Thursday, as he took his brandy and water in Sir Thomas's private
sitting-room.

There is nothing in the world so brisk as the ways and manners of
lawyers when in any great case they come to that portion of it which
they know to be the real bone of the limb and kernel of the nut. The
doctor is very brisk when after a dozen moderately dyspeptic patients
he comes on some unfortunate gentleman whose gastric apparatus
is gone altogether. The parson is very brisk when he reaches the
minatory clause in his sermon. The minister is very brisk when he
asks the House for a vote, telling his hoped-for followers that this
special point is absolutely essential to his government. Unless he
can carry this, he and all those hanging on to him must vacate their
places. The horse-dealer is very brisk when, after four or five
indifferen