alled knowledge, and consummate tact of Lord
Roehampton, he habitually made inquiries, or brought forward motions,
which were evidently inconvenient or embarrassing to the ministry; and
the very circumstance, that he was almost always replied to by the prime
minister, elevated him in the estimation of the House as much as the
pertinence of his questions, and the accurate information on which he
founded his motions. He had not taken the House with a rush like Job
Thornberry, but, at the end of three sessions, he was a personage
universally looked upon as one who was "certain to have office."

There was another new member who had also made way, though slowly, and
that was Mr. Trenchard; he had distinguished himself on a difficult
committee, on which he had guided a perplexed minister, who was
chairman, through many intricacies. Mr. Trenchard watched the operations
of Mr. Vigo, with a calm, cold scrutiny, and ventured one day to impart
his conviction to Endymion that there were breakers ahead. "Vigo is
exhausting the floating capital of the country," he said, and he offered
to give him all the necessary details, if he would call the attention of
the House to the matter. Endymion declined to do this, chiefly because
he wished to devote himself to foreign affairs, and thought the House
would hardly brook his interference also in finance. So he strongly
advised Trenchard himself to undertake the task. Trenchard was modest,
and a little timid about speaking; so it was settled that he should
consult the leaders on the question, and particularly the gentleman who
it was supposed would be their Chancellor of the Exchequer, if ever
they were again called upon to form a ministry. This right honourable
individual listened to Trenchard with the impatience which became a man
of great experience addressed by a novice, and concluded the interview
by saying, that he thought "there was nothing in it;" at the same
time, he would turn it in his mind, and consult some practical men.
Accordingly the ex- and future minister consulted Mr. Vigo, who assured
him that he was quite right; that "there was nothing in it," and that
the floating capital of the country was inexhaustible.

In the midst of all this physical prosperity, one fine day in August,
parliament having just been prorogued, an unknown dealer in potatoes
wrote to the Secretary of State, and informed him that he had reason to
think that a murrain had fallen over the whole of the pota