action; and before I left the room, I had the
pleasure of seeing the Committee organised, with Bob officiating as
secretary. It was the opinion of every one that Pozzlethwaite had not a
chance. I then partook of a light luncheon, and after bidding farewell to
Miss Binkie, who, on the whole, seemed to take matters very coolly, I
drove off for Drouthielaw. I need not relate my adventures in that
respectable burgh. They were devoid of any thing like interest, and not
quite so satisfactory in their result as I could have wished. However, the
name of Gills was known even at that distance, and his views had
considerable weight with some of the religious denominations. So far as I
was concerned, I had no sinecure of it. It cost me three nights' hard
drinking to conciliate the leaders of the Anabaptists, and at least three
more before the chiefs of the Antinomians would surrender. As to the Old
Light gentry, I gave them up in despair, for I could not hope to have
survived the consequences of so serious a conflict.

CHAPTER V.

Parliament was at length dissolved; the new writs were issued, and the day
of nomination fixed for the Dreepdaily burghs. For a time it appeared to
myself, and indeed to almost every one else, that my return was perfectly
secure. Provost Binkie was in great glory, and the faces of the unknown
Clique were positively radiant with satisfaction. But a storm was brewing
in another quarter, upon which we had not previously calculated.

The Honourable Mr Pozzlethwaite, my opponent, had fixed his head-quarters
in Drouthielaw, and to all appearance was making very little progress in
Dreepdaily. Indeed, in no sense of the word could Pozzlethwaite be said to
be popular. He was a middle-aged man, as blind as a bat, and, in order to
cure the defect, he ornamented his visage with an immense pair of green
spectacles, which, it may be easily conceived, did not add to the beauty
of his appearance. In speech he was slow and verbose, in manner awkward,
in matter almost wholly unintelligible. He professed principles which he
said were precisely the same as those advocated by the late Jeremy
Bentham; and certainly, if he was correct in this, I do not regret that my
parents omitted to bring me up at the feet of the utilitarian Gamaliel. In
short, Paul was prosy to a degree, had not an atom of animation in his
whole composition, and could no more have carried a crowd along with him
than he could have supported Atlas upon his