ge, will expire from inanition. I always told
the cabinet they were going on too fast. They should have kept back
municipal reform. It would have carried us on for five years. It was our
only _piece de resistance_."

"I look upon the House of Commons as a mere vestry," said Waldershare.
"I believe it to be completely used up. Reform has dished it. There are
no men, and naturally, because the constituencies elect themselves, and
the constituencies are the most mediocre of the nation. The House of
Commons now is like a spendthrift living on his capital. The business
is done and the speeches are made by men formed in the old school.
The influence of the House of Commons is mainly kept up by old social
traditions. I believe if the eldest sons of peers now members would
all accept the Chiltern hundreds, and the House thus cease to be
fashionable, before a year was past, it would be as odious and as
contemptible as the Rump Parliament."

"Well, you are now the eldest son of a peer," said Sidney Wilton,
smiling. "Why do you not set an example, instead of spending your
father's substance and your own in fighting a corrupt borough?"

"I am _vox clamantis_," said Waldershare. "I do not despair of its being
done. But what I want is some big guns to do it. Let the eldest son of
a Tory duke and the eldest son of a Whig duke do the same thing on
the same day, and give the reason why. If Saxmundham, for example, and
Harlaxton would do it, the game would be up."

"On the contrary," said Mr. Wilton, "Saxmundham, I can tell you, will be
the new cabinet minister."

"Degenerate land!" exclaimed Waldershare. "Ah! in the eighteenth
century there was always a cause to sustain the political genius of the
country,--the cause of the rightful dynasty."

"Well, thank God, we have got rid of all those troubles," said Mr.
Wilton.

"Rid of them! I do not know that. I saw a great deal of the Duke of
Modena this year, and tried as well as I could to open his mind to the
situation."

"You traitor!" exclaimed Mr. Wilton. "If I were Secretary of State, I
would order the butler to arrest you immediately, and send you to the
Tower in a hack cab; but as I am only a President of a Board and your
uncle, you will escape."

"Well, I should think all sensible men," said Waldershare, "of all
parties will agree, that before we try a republic, it would be better to
give a chance to the rightful heir."

"Well, I am not a republican," said Mr. Wilton, "an