of their order, therefore of
{69} themselves. It was a bitter pill to swallow when a man in his
position was elected member for the county. The flood-gates seemed to
have opened. Young gentlemen in and out of college swore great oaths
over their wine, and the deeper they drank the louder they swore. Their
elders declared that the country was going to the dogs, that in fact it
was no longer fit for gentlemen to live in. Young ladies carried
themselves with greater hauteur than ever, heroically determined that
they at least would do their duty to Society. Old ladies spoke of
Antichrist, or sighed for the millennium. All united in sending Howe to
Coventry. He felt the stings. 'They have scorned me at their feasts,'
he once burst out to a friend, 'and they have insulted me at their
funerals!'

When Uniacke left the Tory camp, his own friends and relatives cut him in
the street. When Lord Falkland requested the resignations of the four
irresponsible councillors, their loyalty to the Crown did not restrain
their attacks upon himself. His sending his servants to a concert was
spoken of as a deliberate insult to the society of Halifax; and his
secretary was accused of robbing a pawnbroker's shop to replenish his
wardrobe.

There was too much of human nature in Joe {70} Howe to take all this
without striking hard blows in return. He did strike, and he struck from
the shoulder. He said what he thought about his opponents with a
bluntness that was absolutely appalling to them. He went straight to the
mark aimed at with Napoleonic directness. They were stunned. They had
been accustomed to be treated so differently. Hitherto there had been so
much courtliness of manner in Halifax; the gradations of rank had been
recognized by every one; and the great men and the great women had been
treated always with deference. But here was a Jacobin who changed all
this; who in dealing with them called a spade a spade; who searched
pitilessly into their claims to public respect, and if he found them
impostors declared them to be impostors; and who advocated principles
that would turn everything upside down.

Lord Falkland was a well-meaning young nobleman of great good looks and
small political experience. His ruling characteristic was pride.
Shortly before leaving Halifax he had his carriage-horses shot, lest on
his departure they should fall into plebeian hands. His hauteur was
fortified by his wife, {71} daughter by a