Part 49 (2/2)

'In short, cousin Evelyn, the nation is ruined I see that clear enough Our constitution will soon be changed to a pure despotis; soldiers line our streets: our commission of the peace is filled with the creatures of a corrupt administration; constables are only called out to keep up the farce; and we are at present under little better than a h Mr Evelyn would have been better satisfied, had Sir Barnard's sense of national grievances been equally strong but less acririevances were now more than ever become a kind of co so familiarly run over by the Baronet was sufficient proof: for a people that are continually talking of the evils that afflict them are not, as Sir Barnard and others have supposed, dead to these evils The nation that res, will finally have them redressed

CHAPTER V

_Serious doubts on serious subjects: Personal qualms, and considerations: An intervieith Sir Barnard: Fears and precautions, or a burnt child dreads the fire_

What farther passed in the conversation I have recited was of littleday, for me to be introduced to the Baronet

Thus far successful, Mr Evelyn returned; and, as he was a ht it adviseable to hold a consultation with me and my friends, on the prosecution of his plan

That personal considerations ree influence the enquiry, he first proposed the question, without intiht lead, of--'how far it became a virtuous man to accept a seat, on those conditions under which a seat only can be obtained, a the representatives of the people?'

Without wearying the reader with the arguments that were adduced, let it suffice to inforreed it was a very doubtful case; that, in this as in nued us to confors which were odiously vicious; and that to live in society and rigidly observe those rules of justice which would best pro ireatest political characters would best fulfil their duties by refusing to submit to the corrupt influence of elections, to test-oaths, and to the eht to co out these evils and endeavouring to have them redressed, was a point on which we all seereed: which was that such pernicious practices were in all probability ht into public discussion, through the medium of an assembly like this, than they would be did no such assembly exist

Neither ht to accept the proposal of Mr Evelyn It would be tedious

This proposal did not confine itself to the single act of givingme with a qualification It insisted that the qualification should be a real and not a fictitious deed

To accept the actual possession of three hundred a-year as a bounty, for which I couldto my pride

It ive me the air of an impostor? A kind of swindler of sentiratifying vice?' It seemed at a blow to rob me of all independence; and leave me a manacled slave to the opinions, not only of Mr Evelyn, but, by a kind of consignment, of his relation the Baronet; and even to both their humours

In fine, it was a most painful sacrifice; and required all the a to my mind, not only my duties, but, the power that I should have at any ti myself in my primitive poverty

To this I added a condition, without which ive a deed ofinterest, to the full value of the lands assigned

I shall forbear to dwell on sensations that were very active at the moment; which, on one hand, related to all that concerned Mr Evelyn,like dependence; and, on the other, to my sudden promised elevation toward the sphere in which erly desirous to move Neither will I insist on that which caused h, the approach that I thusthis endless train of meditation, I proceed to relate events as they occurred

I attended Mr Evelyn, according to appoint engaged myself thus far, I oas sufficiently piqued to desire to make a favourable impression: in which I was almost as successful as I ht of me the Baronet was prepossessed; and e entered into conversation and he gavemen and measures, I painted so forcibly that he was almost in raptures

The only circumstance in which I failed was an to declaiue, that pleasedanxiety, that was for ever proht, or detect a blunder And, to ato hear himself corrected, and cut short, in the uarded not to give any offence that was strong enough to be rerossed, by the idea of the conspicuous figure which he and his new member should make in the house, that he was absolutely i fully persuaded that he had discovered a treasure; of which now, at a general election, he was in considerable danger of being robbed

The only precaution he took was to draw from me repeated asseverations that I would not desert the cause of the people: by which, as I afterward found, he understood his own private opinions; and not that which he had literally expressed On this head he seemed never satisfied; and the terms in which he spoke, both of the iversation whatever, were the bitterest that his memory could supply