. So he answered the letter as pleasantly as he knew how.

MY DEAR SILVERBRIDGE,

I am glad that you are in Parliament and am glad also
that you should have been returned by the old borough;
though I would that you could have reconciled yourself
to adhering to the politics of your family. But there is
nothing disgraceful in such a change, and I am able to
congratulate you as a father should a son and to wish you
long life and success as a legislator.

There are one or two things I would ask you to
remember;--and firstly this, that as you have voluntarily
undertaken certain duties you are bound as an honest man
to perform them as scrupulously as though you were paid
for doing them. There was no obligation in you to seek the
post;--but having sought it and acquired it you cannot
neglect the work attached to it without being untrue to
the covenant you have made. It is necessary that a young
member of Parliament should bear this in his mind, and
especially a member who has not worked his way up to
notoriety outside the House, because to him there will be
great facility for idleness and neglect.

And then I would have you always remember the purport for
which there is a Parliament elected in this happy and free
country. It is not that some men may shine there, that
some may acquire power, or that all may plume themselves
on being the elect of the nation. It often appears to me
that some members of Parliament so regard their success
in life,--as the fellows of our colleges do too often,
thinking that their fellowships were awarded for their
comfort and not for the furtherance of any object as
education or religion. I have known gentlemen who have
felt that in becoming members of Parliament they had
achieved an object for themselves instead of thinking that
they had put themselves in the way of achieving something
for others. A member of Parliament should feel himself
to be the servant of his country,--and like every other
servant, he should serve. If this be distasteful to a man
he need not go into Parliament. If the harness gall him he
need not wear it. But if he takes the trappings, then he
should draw the coach. You are there as the guardian of
your fellow-countrymen,--that they may be safe, that they
may be prosperous, that they may be well governed and
lightly burdened,--above all that