en, who has ever a kind word to speak, a pleasant joke to crack,
who can forgive all sins, who is ever prepared for friend or foe but
never very bitter to the latter, who forgets not men's names, and is
always ready with little words,--he is the man who will be supported
at a crisis such as this that was now in the course of passing. It is
for him that men will struggle, and talk, and, if needs be, fight, as
though the very existence of the country depended on his political
security. The present man would receive no such defence;--but still
the violent deposition of a Prime Minister is always a memorable
occasion.

Sir Orlando made his speech, and, as had been anticipated, it had
very little to do with the Bill, and was almost exclusively an attack
upon his late chief. He thought, he said, that this was an occasion
on which they had better come to a direct issue with as little delay
as possible. If he rightly read the feeling of the House, no Bill of
this magnitude coming from the present Ministry would be likely to
be passed in an efficient condition. The Duke had frittered away his
support in that House, and as a Minister had lost that confidence
which a majority of the House had once been willing to place in him.
We need not follow Sir Orlando through his speech. He alluded to
his own services, and declared that he was obliged to withdraw them
because the Duke would not trust him with the management of his
own office. He had reason to believe that other gentlemen who had
attached themselves to the Duke's Ministry had found themselves
equally crippled by this passion for autocratic rule. Hereupon a loud
chorus of disapprobation came from the Treasury bench, which was
fully answered by opposing noises from the other side of the House.
Sir Orlando declared that he need only point to the fact that the
Ministry had been already shivered by the secession of various
gentlemen. "Only two," said a voice. Sir Orlando was turning round to
contradict the voice when he was greeted by another. "And those the
weakest," said the other voice, which was indubitably that of Larry
Fitzgibbon. "I will not speak of myself," said Sir Orlando pompously;
"but I am authorised to tell the House that the noble lord who is now
Secretary of State for the Colonies only holds his office till this
crisis shall have passed."

After that there was some sparring of a very bitter kind between Sir
Timothy and Phineas Finn, till at last it seemed that t