r.
Ferrars had to expound his political views, and to receive from each a
cordial assurance of a churlish criticism. All this he did and endured,
accompanied by about fifty of the principal inhabitants, members of his
committee, who insisted on never leaving his side, and prompting him
at every new door which he entered with contradictory reports of the
political opinions of the indweller, or confidential informations how
they were to be managed and addressed.

The principal and most laborious incidents of the day were festivals
which they styled luncheons, when the candidate and the ambulatory
committee were quartered on some principal citizen with an elaborate
banquet of several courses, and in which Mr. Ferrars' health was always
pledged in sparkling bumpers. After the luncheon came two or three
more hours of what was called canvassing; then, in a state of horrible
repletion, the fortunate candidate, who had no contest, had to dine with
another principal citizen, with real turtle soup, and gigantic turbots,
_entrees_ in the shape of volcanic curries, and rigid venison, sent as
a compliment by a neighbouring peer. This last ceremony was necessarily
hurried, as Endymion had every night to address in some ward a body of
the electors.

When this had been going on for a few days, the borough was suddenly
placarded with posting bills in colossal characters of true blue,
warning the Conservative electors not to promise their votes, as a
distinguished candidate of the right sort would certainly come forward.
At the same time there was a paragraph in a local journal that a member
of a noble family, illustrious in the naval annals of the country,
would, if sufficiently supported, solicit the suffrages of the
independent electors.

"We think, by the allusion to the navy, that it must be Mr. Hood of
Acreley," said Lord Beaumaris' agent to Mr. Ferrars, "but he has not
the ghost of a chance. I will ride over and see him in the course of the
day."

This placard was of course Mr. Tadpole's last effort, but that worthy
gentleman soon forgot his mortification about Northborough in the
general triumph of his party. The Whigs were nowhere, though Mr. Ferrars
was returned without opposition, and in the month of August, still
wondering at the rapid, strange, and even mysterious incidents, that had
so suddenly and so swiftly changed his position and prospects in life,
took his seat in that House in whose galleries he had so long humbl