e opposed to him; and
as the words had fallen from his lips, there had been no purpose of
cheering him from the conservative benches. But noise creates noise,
and shouting is a ready and easy mode of contest. For a while it
seemed as though the right side of the Speaker's chair was only
beaten by the majority of lungs on the left side;--and in the midst
of it all Mr. Daubeny still stood, firm on his feet, till gentlemen
had shouted themselves silent,--and then he resumed his speech.

The remainder of what he said was profound, prophetic, and
unintelligible. The gist of it, so far as it could be understood
when the bran was bolted from it, consisted in an assurance that the
country had now reached that period of its life in which rapid decay
was inevitable, and that, as the mortal disease had already shown
itself in its worst form, national decrepitude was imminent, and
natural death could not long be postponed. They who attempted to
read the prophecy with accuracy were of opinion that the prophet had
intimated that had the nation, even in this its crisis, consented
to take him, the prophet, as its sole physician and to obey his
prescription with childlike docility, health might not only have been
re-established, but a new juvenescence absolutely created. The nature
of the medicine that should have been taken was even supposed to
have been indicated in some very vague terms. Had he been allowed to
operate he would have cut the tap-roots of the national cancer, have
introduced fresh blood into the national veins, and resuscitated the
national digestion, and he seemed to think that the nation, as a
nation, was willing enough to undergo the operation, and be treated
as he should choose to treat it;--but that the incubus of Mr.
Gresham, backed by an unworthy House of Commons, had prevented, and
was preventing, the nation from having its own way. Therefore the
nation must be destroyed. Mr. Daubeny as soon as he had completed his
speech took up his hat and stalked out of the House.

It was supposed at the time that the retiring Prime Minister had
intended, when he rose to his legs, not only to denounce his
opponents, but also to separate himself from his own unworthy
associates. Men said that he had become disgusted with politics,
disappointed, and altogether demoralized by defeat, and great
curiosity existed as to the steps which might be taken at the time by
the party of which he had hitherto been the leader. On that eveni