ars,--from the first reform in Parliament down
to the Ballot,--had been managed by the cunning and treachery of a few
ambitious men. Not, however, that the Ballot was just now regarded by
the party as an unmitigated evil, though it was the last triumph of
Radical wickedness. The Ballot was on the whole popular with the
party. A short time since, no doubt it was regarded by the party as
being one and the same as national ruin and national disgrace. But it
had answered well at Porcorum, and with due manipulation had been
found to be favourable at Sticinthemud. The Ballot might perhaps help
the long pull and the strong pull,--and, in spite of the ruin and
disgrace, was thought by some just now to be a highly Conservative
measure. It was considered that the Ballot might assist Melmotte at
Westminster very materially.

Any one reading the Conservative papers of the time, and hearing the
Conservative speeches in the borough,--any one at least who lived so
remote as not to have learned what these things really mean,--would
have thought that England's welfare depended on Melmotte's return. In
the enthusiasm of the moment, the attacks made on his character were
answered by eulogy as loud as the censure was bitter. The chief crime
laid to his charge was connected with the ruin of some great
continental assurance company, as to which it was said that he had so
managed it as to leave it utterly stranded, with an enormous fortune
of his own. It was declared that every shilling which he had brought
to England with him had consisted of plunder stolen from the
shareholders in the company. Now the 'Evening Pulpit,' in its
endeavour to make the facts of this transaction known, had placed what
it called the domicile of this company in Paris, whereas it was
ascertained that its official head-quarters had in truth been placed
at Vienna. Was not such a blunder as this sufficient to show that no
merchant of higher honour than Mr Melmotte had ever adorned the
Exchanges of modern capitals? And then two different newspapers of the
time, both of them antagonistic to Melmotte, failed to be in accord on
a material point. One declared that Mr Melmotte was not in truth
possessed of any wealth. The other said that he had derived his wealth
from those unfortunate shareholders. Could anything betray so bad a
cause as contradictions such as these? Could anything be so false, so
weak, so malignant, so useless, so wicked, so self-condemned,--in fact,
so '