.

Gradually, after the ladies had gone, the conversation shifted round to
politics, and Sir John began to draw his guests out. People had been
talking a good deal during the last few days about the resignation of
Mr. Bright, which, coming in the same session with that of Mr. Forster,
had made something of a sensation.

"How long will you give them now, Lord Montagu?" said the baronet. "Two
of their strongest men are gone--one over Ireland and the other over
Egypt. If the country could vote at this moment, I verily believe that
we should get a majority. It almost makes one wish for annual
Parliaments."

"I have more than once thought, Sir John, that the Tories would have had
a much longer aggregate of power in the past fifty years if there had
been a general election every year. When we come into office we make
things perfectly pleasant all round for the first twelve month. When
they come in, it rarely takes them a year to set their friends at
loggerheads. As it is, they will stick in to the last moment--certainly
until they have passed a Franchise Act."

"I suppose so. We must not go to the country on the Franchise."

"Rather not."

"And it will be too late to rely on Egypt."

"Heaven only knows what they are yet capable of in Egypt. But we shall
have something stronger than that to go upon--as you know very well."

"Ireland," said Campion.

"Not exactly Ireland, though the seed may spring up on Irish soil. The
main thing to do, the thing that every patriotic man ought to work for,
is to break down the present One Old Man system of government in this
country. The bane of Great Britain is that we are such hero-worshippers
by nature that we can only believe in one man at a time. We get hold of
a Palmerston or a Gladstone, and set him on a pedestal, and think that
everybody else is a pygmy. It may be that our idol is a tolerably good
one--that is, not mischievously active. In that case he cannot do much
harm. But when, as in the case of Gladstone, you have a national idol
who is actively mischievous, it is impossible to exaggerate the evil
which may be done. Therefore the object which we should all pursue in
the first instance is to throw off the old man of the sea, and not
merely to get the better of him in parliament, but to cover him with so
much discredit that he cannot wheedle another majority from the country.
It does not signify whether we do this through Irish or Egyptian
affairs, so long as we do it. M