ght, or which would you like to belong to."

"Well, I must say," replied he, "I _do_ think that the larnin', piety,
property, and respectability, is on the Tory side; and where all them
things is united, right most commonly is found a-joggin' along in
company."

"Well now, Sam, you know we are a calculatin' people, a commercial
people, a practical people. Europe laughs at us for it. Perhaps if
they attended better to their own financial affairs, they would be in a
better situation to laugh. But still we must look to facts and results.
How did the Tories, when they went out of office, leave the kingdom?--At
peace?"

"Yes, with all the world."

"How did the Whigs leave it?"

"With three wars on hand, and one in the vat a-brewin' with America.
Every great interest injured, some ruined, and all alarmed at the
impendin' danger--of national bankruptcy."

"Well, now for dollars and cents. How did the Tories leave the
treasury?"

"With a surplus revenue of millions."

"How did the Whigs?"

"With a deficiency that made the nation scratch their head, and stare
agin."

"I could go through the details with you, as far as my imperfect
information extends, or more imperfect memory would let me; but it
is all the same, and always will be, here, in France, with us, in the
colonies, and everywhere else. Whenever property, talent, and virtue are
all on one side, and only ignorant numbers, with a mere sprinkling of
property and talent to agitate 'em and make use of 'em, or misinformed
or mistaken virtue to sanction 'em on the other side, no honest man can
take long to deliberate which side he will choose.

"As to those conservatives, I don't know what to say, Sam; I should like
to put you right if I could. But I'll tell you what puzzles me. I ask
myself what is a Tory? I find he is a man who goes the whole figur' for
the support of the monarchy, in its three orders, of king, lords, and
commons, as by law established; that he is for the connexion of Church
and State and so on; and that as the wealthiest man in England, he
offers to prove his sincerity, by paying the greatest part of the taxes
to uphold these things. Well, then I ask what is Consarvitism? I am told
that it means, what it imports, a conservation of things as they are.
Where, then, is the difference? _If there is no difference, it is a mere
juggle to change the name: if there is a difference, the word is worse
than a juggle, for it don't import any_."

"Tell