ng for a hearing, I seized the opportunity of rapidly mustering and marshalling my ideas, under the command of that ready wit in which I had considerable confidence. When silence was restored, I commenced my address, purposing to preface, as long as I decently could, in order to amuse the enemy, while I was endeavoring to organize as compact and well-looking a defence as the time would permit.

"Gentlemen," said I, "with cheerful alacrity, I come forward to obey your call upon my name, which is the most flattering mark of your favour that I have yet received; because it emphatically proves the interest you feel in the preservation of my character, free from those suspicions which must not attach to the man who aspires to the high honour of becoming your representative.

"Gentlemen, it is an old observation, that a defeated conspiracy strengthens the hands of Government; and, in like manner, I trust, when I shall have successfully vindicated myself against the charges which the honourable Gentleman who has just now quitted the hustings has-not indeed levelled directly at my person, but-cast upon me by the no less fatal mode of inference and innuendo, that I shall establish myself so much the more securely in your confidence and esteem.

"Although, in this sense, the honourable Gentleman has unwittingly done me a material service, yet I deeply regret the necessity of at length departing from that course to which I have hitherto felt a sort of pride in adhering, and at this advanced stage of our acquaintance, entering into those hackneyed and heartless bonds of promises and protestations, which I am inclined to think could have little effect upon a man whose whole soul and mind would not be engaged to your service by the generous confidence which, up to this day, you have reposed in the humble individual who has the honour to address you.

"Gentlemen, I must explain, or rather correct myself. I have spoken of confidence, as though on your side it had ceased. If I were fully convinced of this fact, I should, without a moment's hesitation, withdraw myself from your notice, for I should feel no desire to solicit your support under the altered relation in which we should then mutually stand. At the same time, it must be confessed, that though in my setting out I was willing to put the best construction upon your summoning me to come forward, yet the manner with which that call was made, and which my consequent appearance received, will afford specious grounds for your enemies and mine to ascribe it to levity or distrust.

"Gentlemen, it was my wish to have said little here, but to have done much elsewhere, and in the proportion that I was scanty in promise, to have been lavish in performance. I repeat, that you have deprived me of this pleasure; and I cannot but feel

deeply mortified, that you should have deemed it expedient to do so.

"But my opponents will doubtless ask, what particular claims I had to such unbounded confidence from you, and why I should feel chagrined because it has been your pleasure to reduce it within the ordinary limits? It is true, indeed, that I have no intrinsic pretensions to such an enviable distinction; but nevertheless, I must maintain that I stand here under circumstances somewhat different from those which conducted the other two honourable candidates for your favour to these hustings. I did not come, the representative of a family justly odious on account of its many political sins, to force myself upon you whether you would or not; neither do I come in the character of a new, though not a young man, whose former life has been spent in the accumulation of wealth, and who was a stranger to you until within these few months, presumptuously to offer myself as the most fit and proper person to represent you in Parliament. I occupy a position quite distinct from that of either of those honourable Gentlemen. I did not come before you of my own accord, but was introduced to your notice, under a sanction of which any man might be proud.

"Permit me to remind you of the simple facts. I came to the 'county just as Mr. Sotheby's rather sudden death called upon you for a new exercise of your elective franchise-an event which would have rendered it incumbent upon me to be here, even if I had not been actually on the road hither at the time. Upon my arrival, I learned, with indignation, that Lord. Daventry proposed attempting to intrude another of his family upon the county, and I instantly expressed my determination of co-operating with my fellow-freeholders in resisting, to the uttermost, this insult; for such it was, even though in doing so I should be obliged to give my support to a gentleman whose person was utterly unknown to me, and with whose name I was scarcely acquainted.

"I had not been twenty-four hours in the county, when I understood, with mingled feelings of surprise, pride, and gratitude, that it was in agitation to name me for the vacant honour; and upon the very heels of this intelligence, I was visited by several gentlemen, who informed me that they formed part of a meeting of freeholders of the county, which had that day assembled in the town, for the purpose of taking into consideration measures for the effectual resistance of the gentleman whom Lord Daventry sought to impose upon them, and for the provision of an eligible successor to Mr. Sotheby. These gentlemen then proceeded to inform me, that the meeting had come to an unanimous resolution expressive of my competency for this honour, in pursuance of which, they have been deputed to wait upon

me, and to rèquest that I would become a candidate for the representation.

"Deeply affected at being the chosen instrument of a numerous, respectable, and influential body of freeholders, in their spirited and patriotic object, and sincerely identifying myself with their feelings and interests, I accepted their invitation, and announced my intention accordingly. During a very extensive and eminently successful canvass, I met with the same liberal treatment which had at first engaged me so entirely to your service. It appears to me, therefore, that I do not complain without cause, if I expostulate with you on the diminution of your confidence in my integrity, assuming that to be the true interpretation of the conduct which you have been pleased to exhibit toward me for the first time this day, inasmuch as I know that I am not less deserving of that confidence now, than I was six weeks ago.

"Gentlemen, I am incapable of deceiving you. What I stated in the outset, I now repeat without qualification of any kind—namely, that there are many political questions of vital importance which I have not yet sufficiently studied to come to a conscientious conclusion upon them. Gentlemen, I have a high respect, and an affectionate esteem for you; yet, anxious as I am to maintain your favourable sentiments, there is one peson whose good opinion I am still more careful to preserve. That person is myself; and I feel that I should be lowered in my own eyes were I to suffer even the apprehension of the disappointment of my fondest hopes to tempt me to a compromise with my conscience. I would rather endure the deprivation of your favour, severe as such an affliction would be, than consent to yield one particle of that independence, the assertion of which has alone brought me into the situation in which I am at present placed. What a monstrous inconsistency would it be, if I, standing here the champion of that sacred principle, should myself violate it, by rashly and dishonestly embracing opinions, the soundness of which I have not yet examined! I will never recognise the absurd maxim, that a man should be sent to Parliament bound hand and foot; that he should enter an assembly professing to be deliberative, with his reasoning faculties suspended, the mere organ of his constituents' will, without the liberty of modifying it, or adding aught thereto, however obviously expedient it might be to deviate from the exact line of their instructions. Public spirit and patriotism can never exist in the bosoms of such servile representatives, who dare not think for themselves, lest they should incur the displeasure of their ignorant and tyrannical masters. Far be from you, Gentlemen, such narrow and miserable policy; far be from me such abject slavery!

"At the same time, I am unwilling to leave myself open to the

possible suspicion of using this broad pretext of independence as a cloak for the concealment of sinister purposes. The honourable Gentleman who preceded me has insinuated that my mind is disposed towards Tory principles, because my late revered relative espoused the tenets of that school. In this respect, I admit that the honourable Gentleman has plausibly an advantage over me, inasmuch as, being ignorant of the politi cal opinions of his father, you are free to conclude that that worthy person never professed any, and that, therefore, his son's mind cannot be biassed by parental prejudice. But, Gentlemen, while I admit the probability of my being influenced by such a consideration, I can assure you that the contrary is the fact. The honourable Candidate has this day shone forth with a lustre so utterly unlike his wonted displays, that one can scarcely believe it to be his own, and would rather suppose that he had -not indeed borrowed, but-purchased it at the high price of some three or four hundred guineas."-[Here I cast a significant glance upon Mr. Crawford, whose features preserved an imperturbable unconsciousness. The joke, however, took with the mob, and there was an explosion of laughter. A guilty blush also mantled upon Jackson's cheek.]—" He has, moreover, exhibited a proficiency in the tactics of debate not quite conformable to the plain, simple, and unsophisticated character which he supported in the earlier scenes of his performance. Foreseeing that my escape into Toryism was impracticable, and fancying that he perceives in me an inclination to the opposite side, he endeavours to render Whiggism a retreat still more perilous, in order that, all means of evasion being cut off, I might be driven into the open ground which he himself occupied; and where the contest being decided by personal merit alone, he had, of course, the best chance of victory. I admire the honourable Gentleman's ingenuity; but on the present occasion it has been exerted in vain, for I assure him that I never dreamed of using the advantages of which he thinks he has deprived me. I knew from the first that the contest between us must be regarded as a personal one. We are both unknown and untried as public characters. We both profess ourselves the friends of the people, and of this county in particular. Agreeing with my honourable Opponent that the gallant Colonel is already virtually rejected, I can in conclusion only echo his own words, -that it is for you to decide which of us two presents the fairest claims to your favour."

CHAPTER IX.

WHEN I concluded, there was general applause, alloyed only by the disapprobation of the Jacksonians, who, though they exerted their lungs lustily, were completely overborne by the still more vociferous acclamations of the majority. Colonel Haviland did not follow the example of his opponents, by making a speech; but continued to stand apart, surveying the scene with haughty indifference. The polling then proceeded rapidly; and when the day's business was closed, the numbers on the gross poll were as follow:

Jackson, 362-Sydenham, 184-Haviland, 106.

My immediate friends complimented me very highly upon the eloquence and address which I had manifested. Nicholls, in particular, said many flattering things upon the subject. "I really," said he, "began to get rather nervous when Jackson attacked us so suddenly and vigorously; and when I saw your embarrassment, I was seriously afraid that we should have been put to the rout at once. But, considering how unprepared you were taken, I think you acquitted yourself admirably; though, upon my word, Sir Matthew, I doubt that. you would have gone forward if I had not urged you. I am in hopes that you've quite doubled up the old waggoner; you certainly turned the tables on that cunning dog Crawford, with a vengeance,-for I'm quite convinced that he made that speech for Jackson, who had got it by heart. Did you observe that, while he was delivering it, he looked every now and then into his hat? I'm sure he had memoranda fastened inside it, though being short-sighted, I could not see distinctly from the distance at which I stood. I could not conceive, when you began, what ground you intended to take, or which course you intended to take; but I was relieved when I saw you going on all right, as steady as possible. You acted very judiciously in talking big; boldness seldom fails at any time, or under any circumstances; but in a dilemma, it is absolutely necessary to a man's safety."

"What do you think of the poll?"

Why, I think we are getting on as well as can be expected; Jackson's is merely a frothy majority without any substantial bottom, and is occasioned by his having had exclusive possession of the hustings for three days; two-fifths, at least, of his votes I reckon to be bad. Besides, we have the majority of to-day's voting."