parently Mr. Disraeli is of
my mind also, for he won't support Paul Hartigan's motion.'

'What was Hartigan's motion?'

'For the papers, or the correspondence, or whatever they called it, that
passed between Danesbury and Dan Donogan.'

'But there was none.'

'Is that all you know of it? They were as thick as two thieves. It was
"Dear Dane" and "Dear Dan" between them. "Stop the shooting. We want a
light calendar at the summer assizes," says one. "You shall have forty
thousand pounds yearly for a Catholic college, if the House will let us."
"Thank you for nothing for the Catholic college," says Dan. "We want our
own Parliament and our own militia; free pardon for political offences."
What would you say to a bill to make landlord-shooting manslaughter, Mr.
Kearney?'

'Justifiable homicide, Mr. Bright called it years ago, but the judges
didn't see it.'

'This Danesbury "muddle," for that is the name they give it, will be hushed
up, for he has got some Tory connections, and the lords are never hard on
one of their "order," so I hear. Hartigan is to be let have his talk out
in the House, and as he is said to be violent and indiscreet, the Prime
Minister will only reply to the violence and the indiscretion, and he
will conclude by saying that the noble Viceroy has begged Her Majesty to
release him of the charge of the Irish Government; and though the Cabinet
have urgently entreated him to remain and carry out the wise policy of
conciliation so happily begun in Ireland, he is rooted in his resolve, and
he will not stay; and there will be cheers; and when he adds that Mr. Cecil
Walpole, having shown his great talents for intrigue, will be sent back
to the fitting sphere--his old profession of diplomacy--there will be
laughter; for as the Minister seldom jokes, the House will imagine this to
be a slip, and then, with every one in good humour--but Paul Hartigan, who
will have to withdraw his motion--the right honourable gentleman will sit
down, well pleased at his afternoon's work.'

Kearney could not but laugh at the sketch of a debate given with all the
mimicry of tone and mock solemnity of an old debater, and the two men now
became, by the bond of their geniality, like old acquaintances.

'Ah, Mr. Kearney, I won't say we'd do it better on College Green, but
we'd do it more kindly, more courteously, and, above all, we'd be less
hypocritical in our inquiries. I believe we try to cheat the devil in
Ireland just as much