CHAPTER XXXII. A LESSON IN POLITICS
In the deep bay-window of a long, gloomy-looking dinner-room of a Dublinmansion, sat a party of four persons around a table plentifully coveredwith decanters and bottles, and some stray remnants of a dessert whichseemed to have been taken from the great table in the middle of theapartment. The night was falling fast, for it was past eight o'clock ofan evening in autumn, and there was barely sufficient light to descrythe few scrubby-looking ash and alder trees that studded the barrengrass-plot between the house and the stables. There was nothing to cheerin the aspect without, nor, if one were to judge from the long pausesthat ensued after each effort at conversation, the few and monotonouswords of the speakers, were there any evidences of a more enliveningspirit within doors. The party consisted of Dr. Hickman and his son Mr.O'Reilly, Mr. Heffernan, and "Counsellor" O'Halloran.
At first, and by the dusky light in the chamber, it would seem as ifbut three persons were assembled; for the old doctor, whose debility hadwithin the last few months made rapid strides, had sunk down into therecess of the deep chair, and save by a low quavering respiration, gaveno token of his presence. As these sounds became louder and fuller,the conversation gradually dropped into a whisper, for the old man wasasleep. In the subdued tone of the speakers, the noiseless gestures asthey passed the bottle from hand to hand, it was easy to mark thatthey did not wish to disturb his slumbers. It is no part of our taskto detail how these individuals came to be thus associated. The assumedobject which at this moment drew them together was the approaching trialat Galway of a record brought against the Hickmans by Darcy. It wasBick-nell's last effort, and with it must end the long and wearisomelitigation between the houses.
The case for trial had nothing which could suggest any fears as to theresult. It was on a motion for a new trial that the cause was to comeon. The plea was misdirection and want of time, so that, in itself, thematter was one of secondary importance. The great question was that ageneral election now drew nigh, and it was necessary for O'Reilly todetermine on the line of political conduct he should adopt, and thusgive O'Halloran the opportunity of a declaration of his client'ssentiments in his address to the jury.
The conduct of the Hickmans since their accession to the estate ofGwynne Abbey had given universal dissatisfaction to the county gentry.Playing at first the game of popularity, they assembled at theirparties people of every class and condition; and while affronting thebetter-bred by low association, dissatisfied the inferior order bycontact with those who made their inferiority more glaring. Theancient hospitalities of the Abbey were remembered in contrast with theostentatious splendor of receptions in which display and not kindnesswas intended. Vulgar presumption and purse-pride had usurped the placeonce occupied by easy good breeding and cordiality; and even they whohad often smarted under the cold reserve of Lady Eleanor's manner, werenow ready to confess that she was born to the rank she assumed, andnot an upstart, affecting airs of superiority. The higher order of thecounty gentry accordingly held aloof, and at last discontinued theirvisits altogether; of the second-rate many who were flattered at firstby invitations, became dissatisfied at seeing the same favors extendedto others below them, and they, too, ceased to present themselves,until, at last, the society consisted of a few sycophantic followers,who swallowed the impertinence of the host with the aid of his claret,and buried their own self-respect, if they were troubled with such aquality, under the weight of good dinners.
Hickman O'Reilly for a length of time affected not to mark the changein the rank and condition of his guests, but as one by one the morerespectable fell off, and the few left were of a station that the fineservants of the house regarded as little above their own, he indignantlydeclined to admit any company in future, reduced the establishment tothe few merely necessary for the modest requirements of the family,and gave it to be known that the uncongenial tastes and habits of hisneighbors made him prefer isolation and solitude to such association.
For some time he had looked to England as the means of establishing forhimself and his son a social position. The refusal of the minister toaccord the baronetcy was a death-blow to this hope, while he discoveredthat mere wealth, unassisted by the sponsorship of some one in repute,could not suffice to introduce Beeeham into the world of fashion.Although these things had preyed on him severely, there was no urgentnecessity to act in respect of them till the time came, as it now haddone, for a general election.
The strict retirement of his life must now give way before therequirements of an election candidate, and he must consent to takethe field once more as a public man, or, by abandoning his seat inParliament, accept a condition of what he knew to be complete obscurity.The old doctor was indeed favorable to the latter course,--the passionfor hoarding had gone on increasing with age. Money was, in hisestimation, the only species of power above the changes and caprice ofthe world. Bank-notes were the only things he never knew to deceive; andhe took an almost fiendish delight in contrasting the success of his ownpenurious practices with all the disappointments his son O'Reilly hadexperienced in his attempts at what he called "high life." Everyslight shown him, each new instance of coldness or aversion of theneighborhood, gave the old man a diabolical pleasure, and seemed torevive his youth in the exercise of a malignant spirit.
O'Reilly's only hope of reconciling his father to the cost of a newelection was in the prospect held out that the seat might at last besecured in perpetuity for Beeeham, and the chance of a rich marriage inEngland thus provided. Even this view he was compelled to sustain bythe assurance that the expense would be a mere trifle, and that,by the adoption of popular principles, he should come in almost fornothing. To make the old doctor a convert to these notions, he hadcalled in Heffernau and O'Halloran, who both, during the dinner, hadexerted themselves with their natural tact, and now that the doctor haddropped asleep, were reposing themselves, and recruiting the energies sogenerously expended.
Hence the party seemed to have a certain gloom and weight over it,as the shadow of coming night fell on the figures seated, almost insilence, around the table. None spoke save an occasional word or two, asthey passed round the bottle. Each retreated into his own reflections,and communed with himself. Men who have exhibited themselves to eachother, in a game of deceit and trick, seem to have a natural repugnanceto any recurrence to the theme when the occasion is once over. Even theywhose hearts have the least self-respect will avoid the topic ifpossible.
"How is the bottle?--with you, I believe," said O'Reilly to Heffernan,in the low tone to which they had all reduced the conversation.
"I have just filled my glass; it stands with the Counsellor."
O'Halloran poured out the wine and sipped it slowly. "A very remarkableman," said he, sententiously, with a slight gesture of his head to thechair where the old doctor lay coiled up asleep. "His faculties seem asclear, and his judgment as acute, as if he were only five-and-forty, andI suppose he must be nearly twice that age."
"Very nearly," replied O'Reilly; "he confesses commonly to eighty-six;but when he is weak or querulous, he often says ninety-one or two."
"His memory is the most singular thing about him," said Heffernan. "Now,the account of Swift's appearance in the pulpit with his gown thrustback, and his hands stuck in the belt of his cassock, brow-beating thelord mayor and aldermen for coming in late to church,--it came as freshas if he were talking of an event of last week."
"How good the imitation of voice was, too," added Heffernan: "'Givingtwo hours to your dress, and twenty minutes to your devotions, you comeinto God's house looking more like mountebanks than Christian men!'"
"I 've seldom seen him so much inclined to talk and chat away as thisevening," said O'Reilly; "but I think you chimed in so well with hishumor, it drew him on."
"There was something of dexterity," said Heffernan, "in the way he keptbringing up these reminiscences and old stories, to avoid enteringupon the subject of the election. I saw that he would n't approach thattheme, no matter how skilfully you bro
ught it forward."
"You ought not to have alluded to the Darcys, however," said O'Halloran."I remarked that the mention of their name gave him evident displeasure;indeed, he soon after pushed his chair back from the table and becamesilent."
"He always sleeps after dinner," observed O'Reilly, carelessly. "It wasabout his usual time."
Another pause now succeeded, in which the only sounds heard were thedeep-drawn breathings of the sleeper.
"You saw Lord Castlereagh, I think you told me?" said O'Reilly, anxiousto lead Heffernan into something like a declaration of opinion.
"Oh, repeatedly; I dined either with him or in his company, three orfour times every week of my stay in town."
"Well, is he satisfied with the success of his measure?" askedO'Halloran, caustically. "Is this Union working to his heart's content?"
"It is rather early to pass a judgment on that point, I think."
"I'm not of that mind," rejoined O'Halloran, hastily. "The fruits of themeasure are showing themselves already. The men of fortune are flyingthe country; their town houses are to let; their horses are advertisedfor sale at Dycer's. Dublin is, even now, beginning to feel what it maybecome when the population has no other support than itself."
"Such will always be the fortune of a province. Influence will and mustconverge to the capital," rejoined Heffernan.
"But what if the great element of a province be wanting? What if we havenot that inherent respect and reverence for the metropolis provincialsalways should feel? What if we know that our interests aremisunderstood, our real wants unknown, our peculiar circumstances eitherundervalued or despised?"
"If the case be as you represent it---"
"Can you deny it? Tell me that."
"I will not deny or admit it. I only say, if it be such, there is stilla remedy, if men are shrewd enough to adopt it."
"And what may that remedy be?" said O'Reilly, calmly.
"An Irish party!"
"Oh, the old story; the same plot over again we had this year at theRotunda?" said O'Reilly, contemptuously.
"Which only failed from our own faults," added Heffer-nan, angrily."Some of us were lukewarm and would do nothing; some waited for othersto come forward; and some again wanted to make their hard bargain withthe minister before they made him feel the necessity of the compact."
O'Reilly bit his lip in silence, for he well understood at whom thisreproof was levelled.
"The cause of failure was very different," said O'Hallo-ran,authoritatively. "It was one which has dissolved many an association,and rendered many a scheme abortive, and will continue to do so, asoften as it occurs. You failed for want of a 'Principle.' You had rankand wealth, and influence more than enough to have made your weightfelt and acknowledged, but you had no definite object or end. You were aparty, and you had not a purpose."
"Come, come," said Heffernan, "you are evidently unaware of the natureof our association, and seem not to have read the resolutions weadopted."
"No,---on the contrary, I read them carefully; there was more thansufficient in them to have made a dozen parties. Had you adopted onesteadfast line of action, set out with one brief intelligibleproposition,--I care not what,--Slave Emancipation, or CatholicEmancipation, Repeal of Tests Acts, or Parliamentary Reform, any ofthem,--taken your stand on that, and that alone, you must havesucceeded. Of course, to do this is a work of time and labor; some menwill grow weary and sink by the way, but others take up the burden, andthe goal is reached at last There must be years long of writing andspeaking, meeting, declaring, and plotting; you must consent to bethought vulgar and low-minded,--ay, and to become so, for activepartisans are only to be found in low places. You will be laughed at andjeered, abused, mocked, and derided at first; later on, you will beassailed more powerfully and more coarsely; but, all this while, yourstrength is developing, your agencies are spreading. Persuasion willinduce some, notoriety others, hopes of advantage many more, to joinyou. You will then have a press as well as a party, and the very menthat sneered at your beginnings will have to respect the persistence andduration of your efforts. I don't care how trumpery the arguments used;I don't value one straw the fallacy of the statements put forward. Letone great question, one great demand for anything, be made for somefive-and-twenty or thirty years,--let the Press discuss, and theParliament debate it,--you are sure of its being accorded in the end.Now, it will be a party ambitious of power that will buy your allianceat any price; now, a tottering Government anxious to survive the sessionand reach the snug harbor of the long vacation. Now, it will be the high'bid' of a popular administration; now, it will be the last hope ofsecond-rate capacities, ready to supply their own deficiencies byincurring a hazard. However it come, you are equally certain of it."
There was a pause as O'Halloran concluded. Heffernan saw plainly to whatthe Counsellor pointed, and that he was endeavoring to recruit for thatparty of which he destined the future leadership for himself, andCon had no fancy to serve in the ranks of such an army. O'Reilly, whothought that the profession of a popular creed might be serviceable inthe emergency of an election, looked with more favor on the exposition,and after a brief interval said,--
"Well, supposing I were to see this matter in your light, what supportcould you promise me? I mean at the hustings."
"Most of the small freeholders, now,-all of them, in time; the prieststo a man, the best election agents that ever canvassed a constituency.By degrees the forces will grow stronger, according to the length andbreadth of the principle you adopt,--make it emancipation, and I 'llinsure you a lease of the county." Heffernan smiled dubiously. "Ah,never mind Mr. Heffernan's look; these notions don't suit him. He 'sone of the petty traders in politics, who like small sales and quickreturns."
"Such dealing makes fewest bankrupts," said Heffernan, coolly.
"I own to you," said O'Halloran, "the rewards are distant, but they 'reworth waiting for. It is not the miserable bribe of a situation, or atitle, both beneath what they would accord to some state apothecary; butpower, actual power, and real patronage are in the vista."
A heavy sigh and a rustling sound in the deep armchair announced thatthe doctor was awaking, and after a few struggles to throw off thedrowsy influence, he sat upright, and made a gesture that he wished forwine.
"We 've been talking about political matters, sir," said O'Reilly. "Ihope we didn't disturb your doze?"
"No; I was sleeping sound," croaked the old man, in a feeble whine, "andI had a very singular dream! I dreamed I was sitting in a great kitchenof a big house, and there was a very large, hairy turnspit sittingopposite to me, in a nook beside the fire, turning a big spit with ajoint of meat on it. 'Who's the meat for?' says I to him. 'For my LordCastlereagh,' says he, 'devil a one else.' 'For himself alone?' says I.'Just so,' says he; 'don't you know that's the Irish Parliament that we're roasting and basting, and when it's done,' says he, 'we 'll sarveit up to be carved.' 'And who are you?' says I to the turnspit. 'I'm ConHeffernan,' says he; 'and the devil a bit of the same meat I 'm to get,after cooking it till my teeth 's watering.'"
A loud roar of laughter from O'Halloran, in which Heffernan endeavoredto take a part, met this strange revelation of the doctor's sleep, norwas it for a considerable time after that the conversation could beresumed without some jesting allusion of the Counsellor to the turnspitand his office.
"Your dream tallies but ill, sir, with the rumors through Dublin," saidO'Reilly, whose quick glance saw through the mask of indifference bywhich Heffernan concealed his irritation.
"I did n't hear it. What was it, Bob?"
"That the ministry had offered our friend here the secretaryship forIreland."
"Sure, if they did--" He was about to add, "That he 'd have as certainlyaccepted it," when a sense of the impropriety of such a speech arrestedthe words.
"You are mistaken, sir," interposed Heffernan, answering the unspokensentence. "I did refuse. The conditions on which I accorded my humblesupport to the bill of the Union have been shamefully violat
ed, and Icould not, if I even wished it, accept office from a Government thathave been false to their pledges."
"You see my dream was right, after all," chuckled the old man. "I saidthey kept him working away in the kitchen, and gave him none of the meatafterwards."
"What if I had been stipulating for another, sir?" said Heffernan, witha forced smile. "What if the breach of faith I allude to had referencenot to me, but to your son yonder, for whom, and no other, I asked--Iwill not say a favor, but a fair and reasonable acknowledgment of thestation he occupies?"
"Ah, that weary title!" exclaimed the doctor, crankily. "What have we todo with these things?"
"You are right, sir," chimed in O'Halloran. "Your present position,self-acquired and independent, is a far prouder one than any to beobtained by ministerial favor."
"I 'd rather he'd help us to crush these Darcys," said the old man, ashis eyes sparkled and glistened like the orbs of a serpent. "I 'd rathermy Lord Castlereagh would put his heel upon _them_ than stretch out thehand to _us_."
"What need to trouble your head about them?" said Heffernan,conciliatingly; "they are low enough in all conscience now."
"My father means," said O'Reilly, "that he is tired and sick of theincessant appeals to law this family persist in following; that thesetrials irritate and annoy him."
"Come sir," cried O'Halloran, encouragingly, "you shall see the last ofthem in a few weeks. I have reason to know that an old maiden sisterof Bagenal Daly's has supplied Bicknell with the means of the presentaction. It's the last shot in the locker. We 'll take care to make thegun recoil on the hand that fires it."
"Darcy and Daly are both out of the country," observed the old man,cunningly.
"We 'll call them up for judgment, however," chimed in O'Halloran. "Thatsame Daly is one of those men who infested our country in timespast, and by the mere recklessness of their hold on life, bullied andoppressed all who came before them. I am rejoiced to have an opportunityof showing up such a character."
"I wish we had done with them all," sighed the doctor.
"So you shall, with this record. Will you pledge yourself not to objectto the election expenses if I gain you the verdict?"
"Come, that's a fair offer," said Heffernan, laughing.
"Maybe, they 'll come to ten thousand," said the doctor, cautiously.
"Not above one half the sum, if Mr. O'Reilly will consent to take myadvice."
"And why wouldn't he?" rejoined the old man, querulously. "Whatsignifies which side he takes, if it saves the money?"
"Is it a bargain, then?"
"Will you secure me against more trials at law? Will you pledge yourselfthat I am not to be tormented by these anxieties and cares?"
"I can scarcely promise that much; but I feel so assured that yourannoyance will end here, that I am willing to pledge myself to give youmy own services without fee or reward in future, if any action followthis one."
"I think that is most generous," said Heffernan.
"It is as much as saying, he 'll enter into recognizances for anindefinite series of five-hundred-pound briefs," added O'Reilly.
"Done, then. I take you at your word," said the doctor; while stretchingforth his lean and trembling hand, he grasped the nervous fingers of theCounsellor in token of ratification.
"And now woe to the Darcys!" muttered O'Halloran, as he arose to saygood-night, Heffernan arose at the same time, resolved to accompanythe Counsellor, and try what gentle persuasion could effect inthe modification of views which he saw were far too explicit to beprofitable.