ion was not without
its consolations. The business of the House is not always exciting,
or even interesting. On this afternoon there was not a member who
did not feel that something had occurred which added an interest to
Parliamentary life.

Very soon after prayers Mr. Gresham entered the House, and men who
had hitherto been behaving themselves after a most unparliamentary
fashion, standing about in knots, talking by no means in whispers,
moving in and out of the House rapidly, all crowded into their
places. Whatever pretence of business had been going on was stopped
in a moment, and Mr. Gresham rose to make his statement. "It was with
the deepest regret,--nay, with the most profound sorrow,--that he was
called upon to inform the House that his right honourable friend and
colleague, Mr. Bonteen, had been basely and cruelly murdered during
the past night." It was odd then to see how the name of the man, who,
while he was alive and a member of that House, could not have been
pronounced in that assembly without disorder, struck the members
almost with dismay. "Yes, his friend Mr. Bonteen, who had so lately
filled the office of President of the Board of Trade, and whose
loss the country and that House could so ill bear, had been beaten
to death in one of the streets of the metropolis by the arm of a
dastardly ruffian during the silent watches of the night." Then Mr.
Gresham paused, and every one expected that some further statement
would be made. "He did not know that he had any further communication
to make on the subject. Some little time must elapse before he could
fill the office. As for adequately supplying the loss, that would
be impossible. Mr. Bonteen's services to the country, especially in
reference to decimal coinage, were too well known to the House to
allow of his holding out any such hope." Then he sat down without
having as yet made an allusion to Phineas Finn.

But the allusion was soon made. Mr. Daubeny rose, and with much
graceful and mysterious circumlocution asked the Prime Minister
whether it was true that a member of the House had been arrested, and
was now in confinement on the charge of having been concerned in the
murder of the late much-lamented President of the Board of Trade.
He--Mr. Daubeny--had been given to understand that such a charge had
been made against an honourable member of that House, who had once
been a colleague of Mr. Bonteen's, and who had always supported the
right honourable