Part 66 (2/2)

Men are rendered selfish, and corrupt, by the baneful influence of the systems under which they live: but it is orthy the attention of those who believe reat happiness, and who are desirous to promote it, that, however the wants of the wretched may tempt them to accept the immediate relief that is within their reach, they never collectively fail to bestow the most unbounded applause, on those principles by which their own proceedings are condemned They are not in love with baseness: it is forced upon them

The reader is doubtless aware that Hector and his friends assumed to themselves the merit of what is called the independent interest; and that his opponent was supported by the whole influence of the court party The nuroans and hisses, and the few plaudits, bestowed upon the orators of this party, were additional proofs of what is the general sense of mankind; and that on the subject of corrupt influence at least they judge rightly In this general sense I own that s which I felt, after the poll began, to perceive that, whatever et their duty and vote only as their interest directed, were undescribable

However, the party of Hector was strong The struggle was violent

Every scandalous art of election was resorted to, by both sides A spirit of rancour daily and hourly increased The opponents came to frequent blows Beastly drunkenness, bloated insolence, and profligacy of principle, met the eye on every side; and I al present at and participating in it, but, to find that I belonged to a race of animals capable of such foul and detestable vice

From this distress I was relieved by an event which in itself was very far from satisfactory The poll had proceeded for some days with tolerable equality; and Hector had rather the advantage: though the voters in the interest of Sir Barnard had not given hied At length, they appeared And how great was the surprise and indignation of our whole party, to see them marshalled on the opposite side, with the favours of the Idford candidate in their hats, and uniforainst us!

On the same day, twelve of the votes which had been proht over to the opposite interest; and ten more of them refused to poll for either party

The coincidence of this desertion revived the suspicions of Hector and his party, concerning ainst hiovernable; and, in the frenzy of passion, he uilty than the Baronet

It was not merely the consciousness of innocence that I felt I had been so indefatigable in every possible way, I had ridden and walked and talked, I had been his defender, his eulogist, his orator, his slave, and had as it were so fouled nation closeda glance such as irresistible feeling dictated, left the com a word

CHAPTER VIII

_The return to town: A visit to Sir Barnard: Ader, who had disappeared: An endeavour to guard against s of friends_

My determination was taken, my servant was called, my horses ordered, and I ihts were far fro clear, or of a pleasant kind The scene I had left was the most odious that I had ever beheld Hector I was convinced would lose his election; and, as ht could not be ined theht not ruin the faht be on Olivia, and even on our hoped for union, I could not foresee

The enig His sudden desertion of Hector, and of the cause which he had so loudly defended, were alar For what other interpretation could be put upon the voters in the Baronet's interest, who not only refused to poll according to their proht up in support of the Idford candidate? Yet I was loth to conclude that an event so fatal to all my hopes, as well to my private affections as to my public duties, had taken place

My horses were excellent, and carried us seventy o post I intended to have ordered a chaise for the remainder of the way: but a mail coach was to pass in half an hour, and I waited There happened to be a vacancy in which I seated myself; and by these

As soon as the day was far enough advanced, my first care was to visit Sir Barnard; and I own I approached the street and the house with a foreboding heart What had happened could not be unintentional It was too decided, too abrupt, and had too many marks of unprincipled treachery I knocked, made my enquiries, and was informed the Baronet was not at hoain the answer

As this hat I apprehended, it excited but little surprise, though much vexation However I left my card; and departed more full of nified that er welcome

Still it was necessary I should know the truth; and, as I had been too intinorant of the haunts of Sir Barnard, I went to the Cocoa tree, a place to which he daily resorted, and there lounged away between two and three hours over the papers; hoping he would coain disappointed The Baronet did not an to conjecture that perhaps the servant had told ht be out early; on business, or I knew not what

As it was past his hour at the Cocoa tree, perhaps I should now find hiain ain received the same dry laconic answer It had an ill face: but I had no i object of attention was the wounded stranger; whom I had left under the care of the physician, and whom I immediately determined to enquire after: not without so been absent on schelect of perhaps a more serious duty For duty seemed to require that men should rather abstain from elections, such as they are at present, than beco arrived, and disliking the vehicle of a hackney coach, I walked forward to the inn at which the stranger had been left; inning to be heavily overcast

Being coer had been removed two days after I left hiivehim or the place of his residence

I then asked them to direct me to the house of the physician: which they did, but told dom