on my calling formally upon him
rose reluctantly from his seat. For a minute or two he stood silent,
humping his shoulders and smiling through his thick beard. Then, in
his slow, deliberate way, he began as follows:

"Why I went into politics? Why did I? I'm sure I don't know.
Certainly I wasn't intended for it. I was intended for a country
gentleman, and I hope for the rest of my life to be one; which,
perhaps, if I were candid, is the real reason of my retirement. But I
was pushed into politics when I was young, as a kind of family duty;
and once in it's very hard to get out again. I'm coming out now
because, among other things, there's no longer any place for me.
Toryism is dead. And I, as you justly describe me, am a Tory. But you
want to know why? Well, I don't know that I can tell you. Perhaps I
ought to be able to. Remenham, I know, can and will give you the
clearest possible account of why he is a Liberal. But then Remenham
has principles; and I have only prejudices. I am a Tory because I was
born one, just as another man is a Radical because he was born one.
But Remenham, I really believe, is a Liberal, because he has convinced
himself that he ought to be one. I admire him for it, but I am quite
unable to understand him. And, for my own part, if I am to defend, or
rather to explain myself, I can only do so by explaining my prejudices.
And really I am glad to have the opportunity of doing so, if only
because it is a satisfaction occasionally to say what one thinks; a
thing which has become impossible in public life.

"The first of my prejudices is that I believe in inequality. I'm not
at all sure that that is a prejudice confined to myself--most people
seem to act upon it in practice, even in America. But I not only
recognize the fact, I approve the ideal of inequality. I don't want,
myself, to be the equal of Darwin or of the German Emperor; and I don't
see why anybody should want to be my equal. I like a society properly
ordered in ranks and classes. I like my butcher or my gardener to take
off his hat to me, and I like, myself, to stand bareheaded in the
presence of the Queen. I don't know that I'm better or worse than the
village carpenter; but I'm different; and I like him to recognize that
fact, and to recognize it myself. In America, I am told, everyone is
always informing you, in everything they do and say, directly or
indirectly, that they are as good as you are. That isn't tru