Part 34 (1/2)
Sooner than be invaded and mutilated he would have submitted to an order calling upon him to find a third curate,--could any power have given such order. His parish had been invaded and his clerical authority mutilated. He was no longer _totus teres atque rotundus_.
The beauty of his life was over, and the contentment of his mind was gone. He knew that it was only left for him to die, spending such days as remained to him in vague prophecies of evil against his devoted country,--a country which had allowed its ancient parochial landmarks to be moved, and its ecclesiastical fastnesses to be invaded!
But perhaps hatred of Mr. p.r.o.ng was the strongest pa.s.sion of Dr.
Harford's heart at the present moment. He had ever hated the dissenting ministers by whom he was surrounded. In Devons.h.i.+re dissent has waxed strong for many years, and the pastors of the dissenting flocks have been thorns in the side of the Church of England clergymen. Dr. Harford had undergone his full share of suffering from such thorns. But they had caused him no more than a pleasant irritation in comparison with what he endured from the presence of Mr. p.r.o.ng in Baslehurst. He would sooner have entertained all the dissenting ministers of the South Hams together than have put his legs under the same mahogany with Mr. p.r.o.ng. Mr. p.r.o.ng was to him the evil thing! Anathema! He believed all bad things of Mr. p.r.o.ng with an absolute faith, but without any ground on which such faith should have been formed. He thought that Mr. p.r.o.ng drank spirits; that he robbed his paris.h.i.+oners;--Dr. Harford would sooner have lost his tongue than have used such a word with reference to those who attended Mr. p.r.o.ng's chapel;--that he had left a deserted wife on some parish; that he was probably not in truth ordained. There was nothing which Dr. Harford could not believe of Mr. p.r.o.ng. Now all this was, to say the least of it, a pity, for it disfigured the close of a useful and conscientious life.
Dr. Harford of course intended to vote for Mr. Cornbury, but he would not join loudly in condemnation of Mr. Tappitt. Tappitt had stood stanchly by him in all parochial contests regarding the new district. Tappitt opposed the p.r.o.ng faction at all points. Tappitt as churchwarden had been submissive to the doctor. Church of England principles had always been held at the brewery, and Bungall had been ever in favour with Dr. Harford's predecessor.
”He calls himself a Liberal, and always has done,” said the doctor.
”You can't expect that he should desert his own party.”
”But a Jew!” said old Mr. Comfort.
”Well; why not a Jew?” said the doctor. Whereupon Mr. Comfort, and Butler Cornbury, and Dr. Harford's own curate, young Mr. Calclough, and Captain Byng, an old bachelor, who lived in Baslehurst, all stared at him; as Dr. Harford had intended that they should. ”Upon my word,” said he, ”I don't see the use for caring for that kind of thing any longer; I don't indeed. In the way we are going on now, and for the sort of thing we do, I don't see why Jews shouldn't serve us as well in Parliament as Christians. If I am to have my brains knocked out, I'd sooner have it done by a declared enemy than by one who calls himself my friend.”
”But our brains are not knocked out yet,” said Butler Cornbury.
”I don't know anything about yours, but mine are.”
”I don't think the world's coming to an end yet,” said the captain.
”Nor do I. I said nothing about the world coming to an end. But if you saw a part of your s.h.i.+p put under the command of a landlubber, who didn't know one side of the vessel from the other, you'd think the world had better come to an end than be carried on in that way.”
”It's not the same thing, you know,” said the captain. ”You couldn't divide a s.h.i.+p.”
”Oh, well; you'll see.”
”I don't think any Christian should vote for a Jew,” said the curate.
”A verdict has gone out against them, and what is man that he should reverse it?”
”Are you quite sure that you are reversing it by putting them into Parliament?” said Dr. Harford. ”May not that be a carrying on of the curse?”
”There's consolation in that idea for Butler if he loses his election,” said Mr. Comfort.
”Parliament isn't what it was,” said the doctor. ”There's no doubt about that.”
”And who is to blame?” said Mr. Comfort, who had never supported the Reform Bill as his neighbour had done.
”I say nothing about blame. It's natural that things should get worse as they grow older.”
”Dr. Harford thinks Parliament is worn out,” said Butler Cornbury.
”And what if I do think so? Have not other things as great fallen and gone into decay? Did not the Roman senate wear out, as you call it? And as for these Jews, of whom you are speaking, what was the curse upon them but the wearing out of their grace and wisdom? I am inclined to think that we are wearing out; only I wish the garment could have lasted my time without showing so many thin places.”
”Now I believe just the contrary,” said the captain. ”I don't think we have come to our full growth yet.”
”Could we lick the French as we did at Trafalgar and Waterloo?” said the doctor.
The captain thought a while before he answered, and then spoke with much solemnity. ”Yes,” said he, ”I think we could. And I hope the time will soon come when we may.”