Part 175 (1/2)

Randal looked, and right up the market-place, followed by an immense throng, moved, high over the heads of all, a Yellow Board, that seemed marching through the air, cometlike:--

Two o'clock p.m.

RESIGNATION OF FAIRFIELD.

YELLOWS!

Vote For

AVENEL AND EGERTON.

(Signed) Timothy Alljack

Yellow Committee Room.

”What infernal treachery is this?” cried Randal, livid with honest indignation.

”Wait a moment; there is Avenel!” exclaimed Levy; and at the head of another procession that emerged from the obscurer lanes of the town, walked, with grave majesty, the surviving Yellow candidate. d.i.c.k disappeared for a moment within a grocer's shop in the broadest part of the place, and then culminated at the height of a balcony on the first story, just above an enormous yellow canister, significant of the profession and the politics of the householder. No sooner did d.i.c.k, hat in hand, appear on this rostrum, than the two processions halted below, bands ceased, flags drooped round their staves, crowds rushed within hearing, and even the poll clerks sprang from the booth. Randal and Levy themselves pressed into the throng. d.i.c.k on the balcony was the Deus ex machina.

”Freemen and electors!” said d.i.c.k, with his most sonorous accents, ”finding that the public opinion of this independent and enlightened const.i.tuency is so evenly divided, that only one Yellow candidate can be returned, and only one Blue has a chance, it was my intention last night to retire from the contest, and thus put an end to all bickerings and ill-blood (Hold your tongues there, can't you!). I say honestly, I should have preferred the return of my distinguished and talented young nephew--honourable relation--to my own; but he would not hear of it, and talked all our Committee into the erroneous but high-minded notion, that the town would cry shame if the nephew rode into parliament by breaking the back of the uncle.” (Loud cheers from the mob, and partial cries of ”We 'll have you both!”)

”You'll do no such thing, and you know it; hold your jaw,” resumed d.i.c.k, with imperious good-humour. ”Let me go on, can't you?--time presses. In a word, my nephew resolved to retire, if, at two o'clock this day, there was no chance of returning both of us; and there is none. Now, then, the next thing for the Yellows who have not yet voted, is to consider how they will give their second votes. If I had been the man to retire, why, for certain reasons, I should have recommended them to split with Leslie,--a clever chap, and pretty considerable sharp.”

”Hear, hear, hear!” cried the baron, l.u.s.tily.

”But I'm bound to say that my nephew has an opinion of his own,--as an independent Britisher, let him be twice your nephew, ought to have; and his opinion goes the other way, and so does that of our Committee.”

”Sold!” cried the baron; and some of the crowd shook their heads, and looked grave,--especially those suspected of a wish to be bought.

”Sold! Pretty fellow you with the nosegay in your b.u.t.tonhole to talk of selling! You who wanted to sell your own client,--and you know it. [Levy recoiled.] Why, gentlemen, that's Levy the Jew, who talks of selling!

And if he asperses the character of this const.i.tuency, I stand here to defend it! And there stands the parish pump, with a handle for the arm of Honesty, and a spout for the lips of Falsehood!”

At the close of this magniloquent period, borrowed, no doubt, from some great American orator, Baron Levy involuntarily retreated towards the shelter of the polling-booth, followed by some frowning Yellows with very menacing gestures.

”But the calumniator sneaks away; leave him to the reproach of his conscience,” resumed d.i.c.k, with a generous magnanimity.

”SOLD! [the word rang through the place like the blast of a trumpet]

Sold! No, believe me, not a man who votes for Egerton instead of Fairfield will, so far as I am concerned, be a penny the better--[chilling silence]--or [with a scarce perceivable wink towards the anxious faces of the Hundred and Fifty who filled the background]--or a penny the worse. [Loud cheers from the Hundred and Fifty, and cries of 'n.o.ble!'] I don't like the politics of Mr. Egerton.

But I am not only a politician,--I am a MAN! The arguments of our respected Committee--persons in business, tender husbands, and devoted fathers--have weight with me. I myself am a husband and a father. If a needless contest be prolonged to the last, with all the irritations it engenders, who suffer?--why, the tradesman and the operative.

Partiality, loss of custom, tyrannical demands for house rent, notices to quit,--in a word, the screw!”

”Hear, hear!” and ”Give us the Ballot!”

”The Ballot--with all my heart, if I had it about me! And if we had the Ballot, I should like to see a man dare to vote Blue. [Loud cheers from the Yellows.] But, as we have not got it, we must think of our families.

And I may add, that though Mr. Egerton may come again into office, yet [added d.i.c.k solemnly] I will do my best, as his colleague, to keep him straight; and your own enlightenment (for the schoolmaster is abroad) will show him that no minister can brave public opinion, nor quarrel with his own bread and b.u.t.ter. [Much cheering.] In these times the aristocracy must endear themselves to the middle and working cla.s.s; and a member in office has much to give away in the Stamps and Excise, in the Customs, the Post Office, and other State departments in this rotten old--I mean this magnificent empire, by which he can benefit his const.i.tuents, and reconcile the prerogatives of aristocracy with the claims of the people,--more especially in this case, the people of the borough of Lausmere. [Hear, hear!]

”And therefore, sacrificing party inclinations (since it seems that I can in no way promote them) on the Altar of General Good Feeling, I cannot oppose the resignation of my nephew,--honourable relation!--nor blind my eyes to the advantages that may result to a borough so important to the nation at large, if the electors think fit to choose my Right Honourable brother--I mean the Right Honourable Blue candidate--as my brother colleague. Not that I presume to dictate, or express a wish one way or the other; only, as a Family Man, I say to you, Electors and Freemen, having served your country in returning me, you have n.o.bly won the right to think of the little ones at home.”