s taken all in good
part by his assembled friends. But when it was read by the quidnuncs
on the following day it was found to contain so deep a meaning that
it produced from Mr. Ratler's mouth those words of fear which have
been already quoted.

Could it really be the case that the man intended to perform so
audacious a trick of legerdemain as this for the preservation of his
power, and that if he intended it he should have the power to carry
it through? The renewal of inquiry as to the connection which exists
between the Crown and the Mitre, when the bran was bolted could only
mean the disestablishment of the Church. Mr. Ratler and his friends
were not long in bolting the bran. Regarding the matter simply in its
own light, without bringing to bear upon it the experience of the
last half-century, Mr. Ratler would have thought his party strong
enough to defy Mr. Daubeny utterly in such an attempt. The ordinary
politician, looking at Mr. Daubeny's position as leader of the
Conservative party, as a statesman depending on the support of the
Church, as a Minister appointed to his present place for the express
object of defending all that was left of old, and dear, and venerable
in the Constitution, would have declared that Mr. Daubeny was
committing political suicide, as to which future history would record
a verdict of probably not temporary insanity. And when the speech was
a week old this was said in many a respectable household through the
country. Many a squire, many a parson, many a farmer was grieved for
Mr. Daubeny when the words had been explained to him, who did not for
a moment think that the words could be portentous as to the great
Conservative party. But Mr. Ratler remembered Catholic emancipation,
had himself been in the House when the Corn Laws were repealed, and
had been nearly broken-hearted when household suffrage had become
the law of the land while a Conservative Cabinet and a Conservative
Government were in possession of dominion in Israel.

Mr. Bonteen was disposed to think that the trick was beyond the
conjuring power even of Mr. Daubeny. "After all, you know, there is
the party," he said to Mr. Ratler. Mr. Ratler's face was as good
as a play, and if seen by that party would have struck that party
with dismay and shame. The meaning of Mr. Ratler's face was plain
enough. He thought so little of that party, on the score either of
intelligence, honesty, or fidelity, as to imagine that it would
consent