perfectly just one, and that duty and his honour called upon him to draw
the sword. So there was difference between Thomas Newcome and Clive his
son. I protest it is with pain and reluctance I have to write that the
good old man was in error--that there was a wrong-doer, and that Atticus
was he.

Atticus, be it remembered, thought himself compelled by the very best
motives. Thomas Newcome, the Indian banker, was at war with Barnes, the
English banker. The latter had commenced the hostilities by a sudden
and cowardly act of treason. There were private wrongs to envenom the
contest, but it was the mercantile quarrel on which the Colonel chose to
set his declaration of war. Barnes's first dastardly blow had occasioned
it, and his uncle was determined to carry it through. This I have said
was also George Warrington's judgment, who, in the ensuing struggle
between Sir Barnes and his uncle, acted as a very warm and efficient
partisan of the latter. "Kinsmanship!" says George, "what has old Tom
Newcome ever had from his kinsman but cowardice and treachery? If Barnes
had held up his finger, the young one might have been happy; if he could
have effected it, the Colonel and his bank would have been ruined. I
am for war, and for seeing the old boy in Parliament. He knows no more
about politics than I do about dancing the polka; but there are five
hundred wiseacres in that assembly who know no more than he does, and an
honest man taking his seat there, in place of a confounded little rogue,
at least makes a change for the better."

I dare say Thomas Newcome, Esq. would by no means have concurred in the
above estimate of his political knowledge, and thought himself as well
informed as another. He used to speak with the greatest gravity about
our constitution as the pride and envy of the world, though he surprised
you as much by the latitudinarian reforms, which he was eager to press
forward, as by the most singular old Tory opinions which he advocated on
other occasions. He was for having every man to vote; every poor man
to labour short time and get high wages; every poor curate to be paid
double or treble; every bishop to be docked of his salary, and dismissed
from the House of Lords. But he was a staunch admirer of that assembly,
and a supporter of the rights of the Crown. He was for sweeping off
taxes from the poor, and as money must be raised to carry on government,
he opined that the rich should pay. He uttered all these opin