ict. To tell
the truth, I do feel confused among them all, and still
fancy that I hear the click of the pistol. That newspaper
paragraph says that the ball went through my whiskers,
which was certainly not the case;--but a foot or two off
is quite near enough for a pistol ball.

The Duke of Omnium is dying, and I have heard to-day that
Madame Goesler, our old friend, has been sent for to
Matching. She and I renewed our acquaintance the other day
at Harrington.

God bless you.

Your most sincere friend,

PHINEAS FINN.

Do not let my news oppress you. The firing of the pistol
is a thing done and over without evil results. The state
of Mr. Kennedy's mind is what we have long suspected; and,
melancholy though it be, should contain for you at any
rate this consolation,--that the accusations made against
you would not have been made had his mind been unclouded.

Twice while Finn was writing this letter was he rung into the House
for a division, and once it was suggested to him to say a few words
of angry opposition to the Government on some not important subject
under discussion. Since the beginning of the Session hardly a night
had passed without some verbal sparring, and very frequently the
limits of parliamentary decorum had been almost surpassed. Never
within the memory of living politicians had political rancour been so
sharp, and the feeling of injury so keen, both on the one side and on
the other. The taunts thrown at the Conservatives, in reference to
the Church, had been almost unendurable,--and the more so because the
strong expressions of feeling from their own party throughout the
country were against them. Their own convictions also were against
them. And there had for a while been almost a determination through
the party to deny their leader and disclaim the bill. But a feeling
of duty to the party had prevailed, and this had not been done. It
had not been done; but the not doing of it was a sore burden on the
half-broken shoulders of many a man who sat gloomily on the benches
behind Mr. Daubeny. Men goaded as they were, by their opponents,
by their natural friends, and by their own consciences, could not
bear it in silence, and very bitter things were said in return. Mr.
Gresham was accused of a degrading lust for power. No other feeling
could prompt him to oppose with a factious acrimony never before
exhibited in that House,--so said some wretch