; and Imogene, gorgeous with the Beaumaris
sapphires; and Sidney Wilton, who kissed his hostess's hand, and
Adriana, who kissed her cheek.

"I tell you what, Mr. Endymion," said Mr. Neuchatel, "you should
make Lord Roehampton your Chancellor of the Exchequer, and then your
government might perhaps go on a little."

CHAPTER LXV

But, as Mr. Tadpole observed, with much originality, at the Carlton,
they were dancing on a volcano. It was December, and the harvest was
not yet all got in, the spring corn had never grown, and the wheat was
rusty; there was, he well knew, another deficiency in the revenue, to be
counted by millions; wise men shook their heads and said the trade was
leaving the country, and it was rumoured that the whole population of
Paisley lived on the rates.

"Lord Roehampton thinks that something must be done about the corn
laws," murmured Berengaria one day to Endymion, rather crestfallen;
"but they will try sugar and timber first. I think it all nonsense, but
nonsense is sometimes necessary."

This was the first warning of that famous budget of 1841 which led to
such vast consequences, and which, directly or indirectly, gave such a
new form and colour to English politics. Sidney Wilton and his friends
were at length all-powerful in the cabinet, because, in reality, there
was nobody to oppose them. The vessel was waterlogged. The premier
shrugged his shoulders; and Lord Roehampton said, "We may as well try
it, because the alternative is, we shall have to resign."

Affairs went on badly for the ministry during the early part of the
session. They were more than once in a minority, and on Irish questions,
which then deeply interested the country; but they had resolved that
their fate should be decided by their financial measures, and Mr. Sidney
Wilton and his friends were still sanguine as to the result. On the last
day of April the Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced the budget, and
proposed to provide for the deficiency by reducing the protective
duties on sugar and timber. A few days after, the leader of the House
of Commons himself announced a change in the corn laws, and the intended
introduction of grain at various-priced duties per quarter.

Then commenced the struggle of a month. Ultimately, Sir Robert Peel
himself gave notice of a resolution of want of confidence in the
ministry; and after a week's debate, it was carried, in an almost
complete house, by a majority of one!

It was gen