-for Mr.
Slide had learned all the facts of the case from Lopez himself. When
Mr. Slide found how hard it was "to draw his badger," as he expressed
himself concerning his own operations, he at last openly alluded to
the Duchess, running the risk of any punishment that might fall upon
him by action for libel or by severe reprehension from his colleagues
of the Press. "We have as yet," he said, "received no answers to
the questions which we have felt ourselves called upon to ask in
reference to the conduct of the Prime Minister at the Silverbridge
election. We are of opinion that all interference by peers with the
constituencies of the country should be put down by the strong hand
of the law as thoroughly and unmercifully as we are putting down
ordinary bribery. But when the offending peer is also the Prime
Minister of this great country, it becomes doubly the duty of those
who watch over the public safety,"--Mr. Slide was always speaking
of himself as watching over the public safety,--"to animadvert upon
his crime till it has been assoiled, or at any rate repented. From
what we now hear we have reason to believe that the crime itself
is acknowledged. Had the payment on behalf of Mr. Lopez not been
made,--as it certainly was made, or the letters in our hand would be
impudent forgeries,--the charge would long since have been denied.
Silence in such a matter amounts to confession. But we understand
that the Duke intends to escape under the plea that he has a second
self, powerful as he is to exercise the baneful influence which his
territorial wealth unfortunately gives him, but for the actions of
which second self he, as a Peer of Parliament and as Prime Minister,
is not responsible. In other words we are informed that the privilege
belonging to the Palliser family at Silverbridge was exercised, not
by the Duke himself, but by the Duchess;--and that the Duke paid the
money when he found that the Duchess had promised more than she could
perform. We should hardly have thought that even a man so notoriously
weak as the Duke of Omnium would have endeavoured to ride out of
responsibility by throwing the blame upon his wife; but he will
certainly find that the attempt, if made, will fail.

"Against the Duchess herself we wish to say not a word. She is known
as exercising a wide if not a discriminate hospitality. We believe
her to be a kind-hearted, bustling, ambitious lady, to whom any
little faults may easily be forgiven on ac