that he should be again
returned to Parliament, were he to resign his seat on
accepting office. As it is, we believe, notorious that
this gentlemen cannot maintain the position which he holds
without being paid for his services, it is reasonable to
suppose that his friends will recommend him to retire, and
seek his living in some obscure, and, let us hope, honest
profession.

Mr. Slide, when his thunderbolt was prepared, read it over with
delight, but still with some fear as to probable results. It was
expedient that he should avoid a prosecution for libel, and essential
that he should not offend the majesty of the Vice-Chancellor's
injunction. Was he sure that he was safe in each direction? As to
the libel, he could not tell himself that he was certainly safe. He
was saying very hard things both of Lady Laura and of Phineas Finn,
and sailing very near the wind. But neither of those persons would
probably be willing to prosecute; and, should he be prosecuted, he
would then, at any rate, be able to give in Mr. Kennedy's letter as
evidence in his own defence. He really did believe that what he was
doing was all done in the cause of morality. It was the business of
such a paper as that which he conducted to run some risk in defending
morals, and exposing distinguished culprits on behalf of the
public. And then, without some such risk, how could Phineas Finn be
adequately punished for the atrocious treachery of which he had been
guilty? As to the Chancellor's order, Mr. Slide thought that he had
managed that matter very completely. No doubt he had acted in direct
opposition to the spirit of the injunction, but legal orders are read
by the letter, and not by the spirit. It was open to him to publish
anything he pleased respecting Mr. Kennedy and his wife, subject,
of course, to the general laws of the land in regard to libel.
The Vice-Chancellor's special order to him referred simply to a
particular document, and from that document he had not quoted a word,
though he had contrived to repeat all the bitter things which it
contained, with much added venom of his own. He felt secure of being
safe from any active anger on the part of the Vice-Chancellor.

The article was printed and published. The reader will perceive that
it was full of lies. It began with a lie in that statement that "we
abstained yesterday from alluding to circumstances" which had been
unknown to the writer when his yesterday's paper