eard the good judges say, Lord Esk-dale, for example, that a man
might speak in Parliament too soon, but it was impossible to go in too
soon.'

'If he wished to succeed in that assembly,' replied Lord Montacute,
'I can easily believe it. In all things an early initiation must be of
advantage. But I have not that wish.'

'I don't like to see a man take his seat in the House of Lords who has
not been in the House of Commons. He seems to me always, in a manner,
unfledged.'

'It will be a long time, I hope, my dear father, before I take my seat
in the House of Lords,' said Lord Montacute, 'if, indeed, I ever do.'

'In the course of nature 'tis a certainty.'

'Suppose the Duke's plan for perpetuating an aristocracy do not
succeed,' said Lord Montacute, 'and our house ceases to exist?'

His father shrugged his shoulders. 'It is not our business to suppose
that. I hope it never will be the business of any one, at least
seriously. This is a great country, and it has become great by its
aristocracy.'

'You think, then, our sovereigns did nothing for our greatness,--Queen
Elizabeth, for example, of whose visit to Montacute you are so proud?'

'They performed their part.'

'And have ceased to exist. We may have performed our part, and may meet
the same fate.'

'Why, you are talking liberalism!'

'Hardly that, my dear father, for I have not expressed an opinion.'

'I wish I knew what your opinions were, my dear boy, or even your
wishes.'

'Well, then, to do my duty.'

'Exactly; you are a pillar of the State; support the State.'

'Ah! if any one would but tell me what the State is,' said Lord
Montacute, sighing. 'It seems to me your pillars remain, but they
support nothing; in that case, though the shafts may be perpendicular,
and the capitals very ornate, they are no longer props, they are a
ruin.'

'You would hand us over, then, to the ten-pounders?'

'They do not even pretend to be a State,' said Lord Montacute; 'they do
not even profess to support anything; on the contrary, the essence of
their philosophy is, that nothing is to be established, and everything
is to be left to itself.'

'The common sense of this country and the fifty pound clause will carry
us through,' said the duke.

'Through what?' inquired his son.

'This--this state of transition,' replied his father.

'A passage to what?'

'Ah! that is a question the wisest cannot answer.'

'But into which the weakest, among whom I class myself