row. A
paragraph was shown to him in a morning paper of that day which must,
he thought, refer to Mr. Kennedy and Phineas Finn. "A rumour has
reached us that a member of Parliament, calling yesterday afternoon
upon a right honourable gentleman, a member of a late Government, at
his hotel, was shot at by the latter in his sitting room. Whether
the rumour be true or not we have no means of saying, and therefore
abstain from publishing names. We are informed that the gentleman who
used the pistol was out of his mind. The bullet did not take effect."
How cruel it was that such information should have reached the hands
of a rival, and not fallen in the way of the _People's Banner_! And
what a pity that the bullet should have been wasted! The paragraph
must certainly refer to Phineas Finn and Kennedy. Finn, a Member of
Parliament, had been sent by Slide himself to call upon Kennedy, a
member of the late Government, at Kennedy's hotel. And the paragraph
must be true. He himself had warned Finn that there would be danger
in the visit. He had even prophesied murder,--and murder had been
attempted! The whole transaction had been, as it were, the very
goods and chattels of the _People's Banner_, and the paper had been
shamefully robbed of its property. Mr. Slide hardly doubted that
Phineas Finn had himself sent the paragraph to an adverse paper, with
the express view of adding to the injury inflicted upon the _Banner_.
That day Mr. Slide hardly did his work effectively within his glass
cage, so much was his mind affected, and at five o'clock, when he
left his office, instead of going at once home to Mrs. Slide at
Camden Town, he took an omnibus, and went down to Westminster. He
would at once confront the traitor who had deceived him.

It must be acknowledged on behalf of this editor that he did in truth
believe that he had been hindered from doing good. The whole practice
of his life had taught him to be confident that the editor of a
newspaper must be the best possible judge,--indeed the only possible
good judge,--whether any statement or story should or should not
be published. Not altogether without a conscience, and intensely
conscious of such conscience as did constrain him, Mr. Quintus
Slide imagined that no law of libel, no injunction from any
Vice-Chancellor, no outward power or pressure whatever was needed to
keep his energies within their proper limits. He and his newspaper
formed together a simply beneficent institutio