my brother John's friend, must
have been a woman of very decided political opinions, and very
liberal views of the value of her convictions--in hard cash. Left
the widowed mistress of a princely estate in Yorkshire, on the
occasion when the most passionate contest recorded in modern
electioneering made it doubtful whether the Government candidate or
the one whose politics were more in accordance with her own would be
returned to Parliament, she, then a very old lady, drove in her
travelling-carriage with four horses to Downing Street, and
demanding to see the Prime Minister, with whom she was well
acquainted, accosted him thus: "Well, my lord, are you quite
determined to make your man stand for _our_ seat?" "Yes, Mrs.
Beaumont, I think quite determined." "Very well," replied the lady;
"I am on my way down to Yorkshire, with eighty thousand pounds in
the carriage for my man. Try and do better than that."

I am afraid the _pros_ and _cons_ for Woman's Suffrage would alike
have thought that very expensive female partisan politician hardly
to be trusted with the franchise. Lord Dacre, who told me that
anecdote, told me also that on one occasion forty thousand pounds,
to his knowledge, had been spent by Government on a contested
election--I think he said at Norwich.] ...

The longer I live, the less I think of the importance of any or all
outward circumstances, and the more important I think the original
powers and dispositions of people submitted to their influence. God has
permitted no situation to be exempt from trial and temptation, and few,
if any, to be entirely exempt from good influences and opportunities for
using them. The tumult of the inward creature may exist in the midst of
the calmest outward daily life, and the peace which passeth
understanding subsist in the turmoil of the most adverse
circumstances.... Our desires tending towards particular objects, we
naturally seek the position most favorable for obtaining them; and,
stand where we will, we are still, if we so choose, on the heavenward
road. If we know how barely responsible for what they are many human
beings necessarily must be, how much better does God know it! With many
persons, whose position we regret and think unfortunate for their
character, we might have to go far back, and retrace in the awful
influence of inheritance the source of the evils we deplore in them. We