ere of a different opinion. At the present moment Tappitt could not
endure to acknowledge to himself that he had been beaten. Nothing but
the prestige and inward support of immediate success could support
him in that contest, so much more important to himself, in which he
was now about to be engaged. That matter of the petition, however,
can hardly be brought into the present story. The political world
will understand that it would be carried on with great vigour.

The news of the election of Butler Cornbury reached the cottage
at Bragg's End by the voice of Mr. Sturt on the same evening; and
Mrs. Ray, in her quiet way, expressed much joy that Mr. Comfort's
son-in-law should have been successful, and that Baslehurst should
not have disgraced itself by any connexion with a Jew. To her it had
appeared monstrous that such a one should have been even permitted to
show himself in the town as a candidate for its representation. To
such she would have denied all civil rights, and almost all social
rights. For a true spirit of persecution one should always go to a
woman; and the milder, the sweeter, the more loving, the more womanly
the woman, the stronger will be that spirit within her. Strong love
for the thing loved necessitates strong hatred for the thing hated,
and thence comes the spirit of persecution. They in England who are
now keenest against the Jews, who would again take from them rights
that they have lately won, are certainly those who think most of the
faith of a Christian. The most deadly enemies of the Roman Catholics
are they who love best their religion as Protestants. When we look to
individuals we always find it so, though it hardly suits us to admit
as much when we discuss these subjects broadly. To Mrs. Ray it was
wonderful that a Jew should have been entertained in Baslehurst as a
future member for the borough, and that he should have been admitted
to speak aloud within a few yards of the church tower!

On the day but one after the election Mrs. Sturt brought over to
the cottage an extra sheet of the "Baslehurst Gazette," which had
been published out of its course, and which was devoted to the
circumstances of the election. I am not sure that Mrs. Sturt would
have regarded this somewhat dull report of the election speeches as
having any peculiar interest for Mrs. Ray and her daughter had it not
been for one special passage. Luke Rowan's speech about Baslehurst
was given at length, and in it was containe