came to
the conclusion that it was the law of cause and effect, and not the law
of reactions, which prompted his new stirrings, and he was as nearly
right as any man may be about his own motive power.

CHAPTER VI

THE NATION AND NICKY

The school board was only a beginning, and, though Ishmael never yielded
to Dan's persuasiveness to the extent of standing for Parliament, he
took an increasing share in local administration. Reform was in the air;
it was the great time of reforms, when men burned over what would now
seem commonplaces, so used are we become to the improvements these men
made.

When Gladstone dissolved Parliament in '74 and made his appeal to the
country to reinstate the Liberals, Ishmael boldly made up his mind as to
his own convictions and supported the Liberal candidate. But England was
sick of the Liberals, in spite of the reforms of the late Government.
The dread of Home Rule, the defeat of the Ministry over the unpopular
Irish Universities Bill, and the ill-feeling aroused by the payment of
the fine to the United States for the depredations of the
_Alabama_--which was to have marked the beginning of a new era when all
troubles would be settled by arbitration--these things had all, though
none had loomed as large in the popular imagination as the great
Tichborne case, contributed to the weariness felt where Mr. Gladstone
was concerned. Ishmael, unswayed by the childish temper of the nation,
based his convictions chiefly upon the condition of the lower classes,
which he had too good cause to know was entirely unsatisfactory. Not all
the old English squiredom of Mr. Disraeli--surely the most incongruous
figure of a squire that ever gave prizes to a cap-touching
tenantry--could persuade Ishmael that the labourer might live and rear a
family in decency on ten shillings a week. The labourer had just sprung
into prominence in the eyes of the world, but Ishmael had known him
intimately for years. The Ballot Act having been passed in '72, this
election held a charm, a secret excitement, new in political history;
but in West Penwith the people were so anxious to impress Ishmael with
the fact that they had voted the way he wished, or if it were the Parson
whose favour they coveted, to tell that gentleman that the Conservative
candidate had had the benefit of their votes, that much of the objective
of voting by ballot was lost. Except, as Ishmael observed, that they
were all quite likely to be lyin