f the
police, the Social Democrat whose antipathy to the Tsar revealed itself
in assaults upon the Russian Embassy, the "hunger-marchers" who had
designs on the British Museum,--all were sure of respectful and tender
handling. He had announced more than once, amid tumultuous cheering,
that he would never be the means of branding earnestness, however
mistaken, with the badge of the felon.

He was talking I recall, to Lady Lavinia Dobson, renowned in two
hemispheres for her advocacy of women's rights. And this was what I
heard him say. His face had grown suddenly flushed and his eye bright,
so that he looked liker than ever to a bookmaker who had had a good
meeting. "No, no, my dear lady, I have been a lawyer, and it is my
duty in office to see that the law, the palladium of British liberties
is kept sacrosanct. The law is no respecter of persons, and I intend
that it shall be no respecter of creeds. If men or women break the
laws, to jail they shall go, though their intentions were those of the
Apostle Paul. We don't punish them for being Socialists or
Suffragists, but for breaking the peace. Why, goodness me, if we
didn't, we should have every malefactor in Britain claiming
preferential treatment because he was a Christian Scientist or a
Pentecostal Dancer."

"Mr. Cargill, do you realise what you are saying?" said Lady Lavinia
with a scared face.

"Of course I do. I am a lawyer, and may be presumed to know the law.
If any other doctrine were admitted, the Empire would burst up in a
fortnight."

"That I should live to hear you name that accursed name!" cried the
outraged lady. "You are denying your gods, Mr. Cargill. You are
forgetting the principles of a lifetime."

Mr. Cargill was becoming excited, and exchanging his ordinary
Edinburgh-English for a broader and more effective dialect.

"Tut, tut, my good wumman, I may be allowed to know my own principles
best. I tell ye I've always maintained these views from the day when I
first walked the floor of the Parliament House. Besides, even if I
hadn't, I'm surely at liberty to change if I get more light. Whoever
makes a fetish of consistency is a trumpery body and little use to God
or man. What ails ye at the Empire, too? Is it not better to have a
big country than a kailyard, or a house in Grosvenor Square than a
but-and-ben in Balham?"

Lady Lavinia folded her hands. "We slaughter our black
fellow-citizens, we fill South Africa with yellow slave