than those of our adversaries. We
can't afford to pull their houses to pieces before we have put our
own in order. The thing will be done; but it must, I fear, be done
slowly,--as is the case with all reforms from within."

Phineas Finn, who was very sore and unhappy at this time, and who
consequently was much in love with purity and anxious for severity,
felt himself personally aggrieved by the acquittal. It was almost
tantamount to a verdict against himself. And then he knew so well
that bribery had been committed, and was so confident that such a one
as Mr. Browborough could have been returned to Parliament by none
other than corrupt means! In his present mood he would have been
almost glad to see Mr. Browborough at the treadmill, and would have
thought six months' solitary confinement quite inadequate to the
offence. "I never read anything in my life that disgusted me so
much," he said to his friend, Mr. Monk.

"I can't go along with you there."

"If any man ever was guilty of bribery, he was guilty!"

"I don't doubt it for a moment."

"And yet Grogram did not try to get a verdict."

"Had he tried ever so much he would have failed. In a matter such as
that,--political and not social in its nature,--a jury is sure to
be guided by what it has, perhaps unconsciously, learned to be the
feeling of the country. No disgrace is attached to their verdict, and
yet everybody knows that Mr. Browborough had bribed, and all those
who have looked into it know, too, that the evidence was conclusive."

"Then are the jury all perjured," said Phineas.

"I have nothing to say to that. No stain of perjury clings to them.
They are better received in Durham to-day than they would have been
had they found Mr. Browborough guilty. In business, as in private
life, they will be held to be as trustworthy as before;--and they
will be, for aught that we know, quite trustworthy. There are still
circumstances in which a man, though on his oath, may be untrue with
no more stain of falsehood than falls upon him when he denies himself
at his front door though he happen to be at home."

"What must we think of such a condition of things, Mr. Monk?"

"That it's capable of improvement. I do not know that we can think
anything else. As for Sir Gregory Grogram and Baron Boultby and the
jury, it would be waste of power to execrate them. In political
matters it is very hard for a man in office to be purer than his
neighbours,--and, when he is so,