to be 'ung. If you was to say to me to-morrow 'Will you 'ang
old Gladstone?' I'd 'andle the rope. He's a blank robber and a
scoundrel, he is.

"What's this new man, Lord Churchill, goin' to do? He's a red-hot 'un.
He does slip into 'em, and no mistake. He's a coming man, I reckon. I
never see such a flow of language as that bit where he called old Gommy
a superannuated Pharisee. That was up against him, wasn't it?"

An old man spoke. He is feeble, but he is regarded as an authority on
literature, politics, and other matters. "There's never been a good day
for anybody since the old-fashioned elections was done away with. All
the houses was open, fun going on for days, and the candidates was free
as free could be. Your vote was worth something then. I remember when
Horsley put up against Palmer. A rare man was Palmer! Why, that Palmer
drove down with a coach-and-four and postilions, and he kept us all
alive for a week. He'd kiss the children in the streets, and he'd set
all the taps free in any inn that he went into. It's all purity and
that sort of thing now.

"I don't see no good in talking politics. One of the jiggers says one
thing, and one of them says another thing. I think the first one's
right, then I think the other one's right, and then I think nothing at
all. I say, give us something good for trade, and let us have a fair
chance of making money. That's my motto.

"And, I say, let's have a law to turn those d----d Germans out of the
country. They come over here--the hungry, poverty-stricken brutes--and
they take the bread out of Englishmen's mouths, and they talk about
education. Education! who cares for education? I never could read a book
in my life without falling asleep, and I can give some of the educated
ones a start in my small way. Why, I've got a tenant--a literary
man--and he has about six pound of meat sent home in a week. There's
education for you. I say, out with the Germans!"

Rullock, the cultured man, was hurt when he heard education mentioned
lightly. He said, "Excuse _me_, friend Bowler, but I think we must
reckonise the claims of edgication. We all know you; we all respect
you, and we know you'll cut up well at the finish; but I must disagree
with you on that one subject. I'm a edgicated man--I may say that much.
My father paid sixty pound a year at boarding-school for me.
Sixty--pounds--a--year; so if I'm not edgicated, I should like to know
who is. It's a great advantage to you. Look a