pearance, youth, and a
temperament in which the reason had not been developed to the prejudice
of the heart.

'And when do you start for the Holy Land?' said Lord Henry to Tancred,
in a tone and with a countenance which proved his sympathy.

'I have clutched my staff, but the caravan lingers.'

'I envy you!'

'Why do you not go?'

Lord Henry slightly shrugged his shoulders, and said, 'It is too late. I
have begun my work and I cannot leave it.'

'If a Parliamentary career could save this country,' said Tancred, 'I
am sure you would be a public benefactor. I have observed what you and
Mr. Con-ingsby and some of your friends have done and said, with great
interest. But Parliament seems to me to be the very place which a man
of action should avoid. A Parliamentary career, that old superstition of
the eighteenth century, was important when there were no other sources
of power and fame. An aristocracy at the head of a people whom they had
plundered of their means of education, required some cultivated tribunal
whose sympathy might stimulate their intelligence and satisfy their
vanity. Parliament was never so great as when they debated with closed
doors. The public opinion, of which they never dreamed, has superseded
the rhetorical club of our great-grandfathers. They know this well
enough, and try to maintain their unnecessary position by affecting
the character of men of business, but amateur men of business are very
costly conveniences. In this age it is not Parliament that does the real
work. It does not govern Ireland, for example. If the manufacturers want
to change a tariff, they form a commercial league, and they effect their
purpose. It is the same with the abolition of slavery, and all our great
revolutions. Parliament has become as really insignificant as for two
centuries it has kept the monarch. O'Connell has taken a good share of
its power; Cobden has taken another; and I am inclined to believe,'
said Tancred, 'though I care little about it, that, if our order had
any spirit or prescience, they would put themselves at the head of the
people, and take the rest.'

'Coningsby dines here to-day,' said Sidonia, who, unobserved, had
watched Tancred as he spoke, with a searching glance.

'Notwithstanding what you say,' said Lord Henry, smiling, 'I wish I
could induce you to remain and help us. You would be a great ally.'

'I go to a land,' said Tancred, 'that has never been blessed by that
fatal drollery cal