n their opinions.
He had long since recanted those errors of his early youth, which
had cost him his seat for the county, and had abjured the de Courcy
politics. He was staunch enough as a Tory now that his being so would
no longer be of the slightest use to him; but the Duke of Omnium,
and Lord de Courcy, and Mr Moffat were all Whigs; Whigs, however,
differing altogether in politics from Sir Roger, who belonged to
the Manchester school, and whose pretensions, through some of those
inscrutable twists in modern politics which are quite unintelligible
to the minds of ordinary men outside the circle, were on this
occasion secretly favoured by the high Conservative party.

How Mr Moffat, who had been brought into the political world by Lord
de Courcy, obtained all the weight of the duke's interest I never
could exactly learn. For the duke and the earl did not generally act
as twin-brothers on such occasions.

There is a great difference in Whigs. Lord de Courcy was a Court
Whig, following the fortunes, and enjoying, when he could get it, the
sunshine of the throne. He was a sojourner at Windsor, and a visitor
at Balmoral. He delighted in gold sticks, and was never so happy as
when holding some cap of maintenance or spur of precedence with due
dignity and acknowledged grace in the presence of all the Court.
His means had been somewhat embarrassed by early extravagance; and,
therefore, as it was to his taste to shine, it suited him to shine at
the cost of the Court rather than at his own.

The Duke of Omnium was a Whig of a very different calibre. He rarely
went near the presence of majesty, and when he did do so, he did it
merely as a disagreeable duty incident to his position. He was very
willing that the Queen should be queen so long as he was allowed to
be Duke of Omnium. Nor had he begrudged Prince Albert any of his
honours till he was called Prince Consort. Then, indeed, he had,
to his own intimate friends, made some remark in three words, not
flattering to the discretion of the Prime Minister. The Queen might
be queen so long as he was Duke of Omnium. Their revenues were
about the same, with the exception, that the duke's were his own,
and he could do what he liked with them. This remembrance did not
unfrequently present itself to the duke's mind. In person, he was a
plain, thin man, tall, but undistinguished in appearance, except that
there was a gleam of pride in his eye which seemed every moment to be
saying, "I