The great idea to harp upon is Union. Union against a
common enemy. Union against Irish rebels. Union against Gladstone and
the Democracy; but draw this very mild until you feel that you are on
safe ground. Union is the word, and Unionist is the Epithet. Liberal
Unionists. That is the inevitable phrase, and it will fit any crisis
that may arise."

"But suppose they dish us with the County franchise?"

"We must make a fight over that; but for my part I am not afraid of
franchises. There is a Tory majority to be picked out of manhood
suffrage, as England will surely discover some day. Possibly the County
franchise must be cleared out of the way before we get our chance. What
will that mean? Why, simply that Gladstone will think it necessary to
use his first majority in order to carry some great Act of Confiscation;
to make Hodge your master; or to filch a bit of your land for him; or to
join hands with Parnell and cut Ireland adrift. Then we shall have our
opportunity; and that is what we have to prepare for."

Lord Ambermere, and Dalton, and Milton, Q.C., nodded their heads. They
had heard all this before; but to Willoughby it was new, for he had only
just begun to put himself into the harness of political life.

"How can we help ourselves," he said, "if the laborers have returned a
lot of new men, and there is a big Liberal majority?"

"That is the point, of course. Well, put it at the worst. Say that
Gladstone has a majority of eighty, without Parnell, and say that
Parnell can dispose of eighty. Say, again, that the Irishmen are ready
to support Gladstone, in the expectation of favors to come. Now let the
Old Man adopt either a Nationalist policy or an out-and-out Democratic
policy, and assume that the Union for which we have been working takes
effect. In order to destroy Gladstone's majority of one hundred and
sixty, at least eighty of his nominal followers must come over. Of
these, the pure Whigs will count for upwards of forty, and another forty
must be forthcoming from the men I have just described. That is putting
it at the worst--and it is safer to do so. Now the question is, Tom
Willoughby, what can you do, and whom can you tackle? I don't want you
to give me an answer, but only to think it over."

"Oh, if you only want thinking, I'm the beggar to think. But--suppose
you land your alderman, and he don't get re-elected in 1885 or
thereabouts? That would be a frightful sell, don't you know!"

"Why, that is