o
us by Mr. Lopez or his friends that such was the case we shall be
satisfied.

"But a report has reached us, and we may say more than a report,
which makes it our duty to ask this question. Were those expenses
paid out of the private pocket of the present Prime Minister? If
so, we maintain that we have discovered a blot in that nobleman's
character which it is our duty to the public to expose. We will go
farther and say that if it be so,--if these expenses were paid out
of the private pocket of the Duke of Omnium, it is not fit that that
nobleman should any longer hold the high office which he now fills.

"We know that a peer should not interfere in elections for the House
of Commons. We certainly know that a Minister of the Crown should not
attempt to purchase parliamentary support. We happen to know also the
almost more than public manner,--are we not justified in saying the
ostentation?--with which at the last election the Duke repudiated
all that influence with the borough which his predecessors, and we
believe he himself, had so long exercised. He came forward telling us
that he, at least, meant to have clean hands;--that he would not do
as his forefathers had done;--that he would not even do as he himself
had done in former years. What are we to think of the Duke of Omnium
as a Minister of this country, if, after such assurances, he has out
of his own pocket paid the electioneering expenses of a candidate at
Silverbridge?" There was much more in the article, but the passages
quoted will suffice to give the reader a sufficient idea of the
accusation made, and which the Duke read in the retirement of his own
chamber.

He read it twice before he allowed himself to think of the matter.
The statement made was at any rate true to the letter. He had paid
the man's electioneering expenses. That he had done so from the
purest motives he knew and the reader knows;--but he could not even
explain those motives without exposing his wife. Since the cheque was
sent he had never spoken of the occurrence to any human being,--but
he had thought of it very often. At the time his private Secretary,
with much hesitation, almost with trepidation, had counselled him not
to send the money. The Duke was a man with whom it was very easy to
work, whose courtesy to all dependent on him was almost exaggerated,
who never found fault, and was anxious as far as possible to do
everything for himself. The comfort of those around him was alway