d game,--which was, in truth, a
game very much loved in the old town of Percycross. So thought the
wise men, and for a while it seemed that the wise men were to have
their own way. But there were men at Percycross who were not wise,
and who would have it that such an arrangement as this showed lack of
spirit. The conservative foolish men at Percycross began by declaring
that they could return two members for the borough if they pleased,
and that they would do so, unless this and that were conceded to
them. The liberal foolish men swore that they were ready for the
battle. They would concede nothing, and would stand up and fight if
the word concession were named to them. They would not only have one
member, but would have half the aldermen, half the town-councillors,
half the mayor, half the patronage in beadles, bell-ringers and
bumbledom in general. Had the great reformer of the age given them
household suffrage for nothing? The liberal foolish men of Percycross
declared, and perhaps thought, that they could send two liberal
members to Parliament. And so the borough grew hot. There was
one very learned pundit in those parts, a pundit very learned in
political matters, who thus prophesied to one of the proposed
candidates;--"You'll spend a thousand pounds in the election. You
won't get in, of course, but you'll petition. That'll be another
thousand. You'll succeed there, and disfranchise the borough. It will
be a great career, and no doubt you'll find it satisfactory. You
mustn't show yourself in Percycross afterwards;--that's all." But the
spirit was afloat, and the words of the pundit were of no avail. The
liberal spirit had been set a going, and men went to work with the
new lists of borough voters. By the end of August it was seen that
there must be a contest. But who should be the new candidates?

The old candidates were there,--one on each side: an old Tory and a
young Radical. In telling our tale we will not go back to the old
sins of the borough, or say aught but good of the past career of the
members. Old Mr. Griffenbottom, the Tory, had been very generous with
his purse, and was beloved, doubtless, by many in the borough. It
is so well for a borough to have some one who is always ready with
a fifty-pound note in this or that need! It is so comfortable in a
borough to know that it can always have its subscription lists well
headed! And the young Radical was popular throughout the county. No
one could take a ch