Instead of
doing so they had, almost unanimously, grovelled in the dust at
their rich neighbour's feet. "There are but one or two such places
left in all England," said the gentleman. "But those one or two,"
answered the Senator, "were wilfully left there by the Parliament
which represented the whole nation."
Then, quite early in the Session, immediately after the voting of
the address, a motion had been made by the Government of the day
for introducing household suffrage into the counties. No one knew
the labour to which the Senator subjected himself in order that he
might master all these peculiarities,--that he might learn how men
became members of Parliament and how they ceased to be so, in what
degree the House of Commons was made up of different elements, how
it came to pass, that though there was a House of Lords, so many
lords sat in the lower chamber. All those matters which to ordinary
educated Englishmen are almost as common as the breath of their
nostrils, had been to him matter of long and serious study. And as
the intent student, who has zealously buried himself for a week
among commentaries and notes, feels himself qualified to question
Porson and to Be-Bentley Bentley, so did our Senator believe, while
still he was groping among the rudiments, that he had all our
political intricacies at his fingers' ends.
Pages:
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523