at all hours!--

But leaving this, let us remark one thing which is very plain: That
whatever be the uses and duties, real or supposed, of a Secretary
in Parliament, his faculty to accomplish these is a point entirely
unconnected with his ability to get elected into Parliament, and has
no relation or proportion to it, and no concern with it whatever.
Lord Tommy and the Honorable John are not a whit better qualified for
Parliamentary duties, to say nothing of Secretary duties, than plain
Tom and Jack; they are merely better qualified, as matters stand,
for getting admitted to try them. Which state of matters a reforming
Premier, much in want of abler men to help him, now proposes altering.
Tom and Jack, once admitted by the Queen's writ, there is every reason
to suppose will do quite as well there as Lord Tommy and the Honorable
John. In Parliament quite as well: and elsewhere, in the other
infinitely more important duties of a Government Office, which indeed
are and remain the essential, vital and intrinsic duties of such a
personage, is there the faintest reason to surmise that Tom and Jack,
if well chosen, will fall short of Lord Tommy and the Honorable John? No
shadow of a reason. Were the intrinsic genius of the men exactly equal,
there is no shadow of a reason: but rather there is quite the reverse;
for Tom and Jack have been at least workers all their days, not idlers,
game-preservers and mere human clothes-horses, at any period of their
lives; and have gained a schooling _thereby_, of which Lord Tommy and
the Honorable John, unhappily strangers to it for most part, can form no
conception! Tom and Jack have already, on this most narrow hypothesis,
a decided _superiority_ of likelihood over Lord Tommy and the Honorable
John.

But the hypothesis is very narrow, and the fact is very wide; the
hypothesis counts by units, the fact by millions. Consider how many Toms
and Jacks there are to choose from, well or ill! The aristocratic class
from whom Members of Parliament can be elected extends only to certain
thousands; from these you are to choose your Secretary, if a seat in
Parliament is the primary condition. But the general population is of
Twenty-seven Millions; from all sections of which you can choose, if
the seat in Parliament is not to be primary. Make it ultimate instead of
primary, a last investiture instead of a first indispensable condition,
and the whole British Nation, learned, unlearned, professional,
p