em
if the Whigs cannot. A poor Whig premier has none but the Liberals
to back him; but a reforming Tory will be backed by all the
world--except those few whom his own dishonesty will personally have
disgusted.

But at that time--some twelve or fifteen years since--all this was
not a part of the political A B C; and Harcourt had much doubt in
his own mind as to the party which ought to be blessed with his
adherence. Lord chancellorships and lord chief-justiceships, though
not enjoyed till middle life, or, indeed, till the evening of a
lawyer's days, must, in fact, be won or lost in the heyday of his
career. One false step in his political novitiate may cost him
everything. A man when known as a recognized Whig may fight battle
after battle with mercenary electors, sit yawning year after year
till twelve o'clock, ready to attack on every point the tactics of
his honourable and learned friend on the Treasury seats, and yet see
junior after junior rise to the bench before him--and all because at
starting he decided wrongly as to his party.

If Harcourt had predilections, they were with the Whigs; but he was
not weak enough to let any predilection be a burden to his interests.
Where was the best opening for him? The Tories--I still prefer the
name, as being without definite meaning; the direct falsehood implied
in the title of Conservative amounts almost to a libel--the Tories
were in; but from the fact of being in, were always liable to be
turned out. Then, too, they were of course provided with attorneys
and solicitors-general, lords-advocate and legal hangers-on of every
sort. The coming chances might be better with the Whigs.

Under these circumstances, he went to his old friend Mr. Die, Mr.
Neversaye Die, the rich, quiet, hard-working, old chancery barrister,
to whose fostering care he had some time since recommended his friend
Bertram. Every one has some quiet, old, family, confidential friend;
a man given to silence, but of undoubted knowledge of the world,
whose experience is vast, and who, though he has not risen in the
world himself, is always the man to help others to do so. Every one
has such a friend as this, and Mr. Neversaye Die was Harcourt's
friend. Mr. Die himself was supposed to be a Tory, quite of the old
school, a Lord Eldon Tory; but Harcourt knew that this would in no
way bias his judgment. The mind of a barrister who has been for fifty
years practising in court will never be biassed by his predile