there should also be brought home to every man the care
of his poorer, or weaker, or less competent brother. I never expect
to see that. I do hope to see the men of greatest ability pay more
generously for the privileges they enjoy. The best policy for them
too. The better the condition of the general community the better for
themselves. You cannot alarm me with epithets. But these views are
happily not essential to the support of the Emigration policy."

"O dear! O dear! mad as a March hare!" cried the minister, as he stumped
from the room.

"Sterling is a good fellow," said he to a colleague with whom he walked
down Pall Mall, "and a thorough-paced Liberal. Besides, he carries great
weight in the House. But he is an enthusiast, and, therefore, not always
quite practical."

By PRACTICAL the minister meant, not that which might well and to
advantage be done if good and able men would resolve to do it, spite of
all hindrances, but that which, upon a cunning review of party balances
and a judicious probing of public opinion, seemed to be a policy fit
for his party to pursue. The first, original and masterly statesmen are
needed to initiate and perform--the other is simply the art of a genius
who knows how most adroitly to manipulate people and circumstances.

IV.--Very Broad Views.

Sir Charles Sterling, Mr. Joshua Hale, and others continued the
conversation interrupted by the minister's exit. What was to be done
with Ginx's Baby? In the great dissected map of society what niches were
cut out for him and all like him to fill? Most of the politicians were
for leaving that to himself to find out. The term "law of supply and
demand" was freely bandied between them, as it is in many journals
nowadays, with little object save to shut up avenues of discussion by a
high-sounding phrase.

Then of these "statesmen," most clung, if not to self-interest, to
personal crotchets. What is more darling to a man than the child of his
intellect or fancy? How the poor poetaster hugs his tawdry verses as if
they were the imperial ornaments of genius! Just in the same way does
the politician love the policies himself hath devised, pressing them
forward at all hazards, while he is blind to the utility of others.
This is the basis of that aspect of selfishness which often mars in the
approbation of a country a really honest statesmanship--an egotistic
tenacity of one's own creature as the best, which yet is not the
criminal selfis