CHAPTER XIV.

POLITICAL LECTURES.

I have been politick with my friend, smooth with mine enemy.

SHAKSPEARE.

THE advance and success of Clayton were necessary to re-kindle in De Vere, interests in regard to official objects and party politics which had been almost laid asleep. It is neither necessary to the views of this biography, nor is it the intention to give any account of his travels. Our objects are at home. It is enough to say that, though general politics, and statistical inquiries, were zealously pursued by him, he was equally, if not more bent upon an examination of the manners and customs of his fellowcreatures with a view to that moral philosophy, which he always preferred to political, though the last was by no means undervalued. Of party politics he could acquire nothing abroad,

and of these, when he returned home, it is inconceivable, considering his accomplishments in every thing else, how great was his ignorance Clayton beat him far behind in this most necessary qualification for rising; but Clayton knew nothing else.

This want of information, or absence of feeling on points so much the life and soul of an Englishman's excitements, made De Vere at first more indifferent than he ought to have been to the possession of the seat in parliament which had been held for him. Had his assistance been wanted upon questions of public, and particularly of foreign policy, he would have been eager enough. But having watched for these questions, he was surprised to find how seldom they seemed to be considered, and how comparatively absorbing was every thing that regarded local interests of which he knew nothing, or the power and influence of particular parties of which he knew little more. He, therefore, without much difficulty acceded to his uncle's request to allow Clayton to sit out the session, at the commencement of which he found him, nor was he sorry to pass the first month of his return in visiting his mother, and the favourite

seat of his childhood at Talbois, for favourite it still was, spite of all the adversity of which it had been the scene.

His friend the President told him he was wrong in this arrangement, and advised his instant entry into the House; but he thought he had time enough before him. He, however, on his return to London acquired, or recovered, so much of his former spirit of curiosity, that he began to visit both Houses as a spectator, and soon became so much interested in the contemplation of what was passing, as to regret that he had consented not yet to be an actor.

At first, he was delighted, and even astonished, by the abilities of the leaders. He was fascinated by the force, the beauty, and the variety of their eloquence. The Premier had been used to speak in thunder, and the thunder still rolled, though only at a distance, while Lord Oldcastle (Lord Eustace's father) calmed his hearers by the smoothness of his periods. But Mr. Wentworth fixed every body, by a flow of language and ideas, which alike charmed the imagination and convinced the understanding. In the Opposition, one great leader was rapid in invective; another dazzled by his wit; a third by the

graces of his fancy, which was so warm that which ever way he moved, graces seemed to drop all around him, and flowers to spring up under his feet.

For some time this was enchanting to a mind like De Vere's, and he longed to possess his seat that he might never be absent from such a feast.

But this was not the longing of Clayton. That prudent young man sought therefore to break the spell which had fascinated his friend. He talked of the tricks of eloquence, and (with a coolness at which himself could not help laughing), of trading politicians. Scarcely one in the House, he said, with Walpole, but had his price; and though of some, and even of the great majority, this was a wicked and despicable calumny, the creation of a peer, in the person of one of the most eloquent and active of the Opposition, made a sad inroad in De Vere's political creed. Under the gallery, too, where he sat, he was surrounded with candidates for power and fame, or those who already possessed them, whose mutual criticisms were bitter and caustic. Motives of interest were often assigned, where De Vere hoped only to find freedom and honour. Some were said to be speaking for

particular rewards, some out of particular revenge, and some for bread.

Not a hundredth part of these observations were founded; yet not the less confidently were they hazarded, as party biassed, or disposition inclined.

Thus, by one or other rival, the sincerity of almost every speaker was questioned, except perhaps of some plain dull one, to whom it was no pleasure to listen, and whom nobody regarded.

De Vere was too wise to believe all that was said; but the slander disgusted him with those who uttered it.

The novelty wore off. Rhetoric shewed itself what it is, an art. Technicalities came to be discovered, and the refinements of one evening formed the common places of the next. Even without this, De Vere began to make a question, in which he found little comfort from Clayton, whether the treat of listening to such beautiful figures, such kindling topics as he sometimes heard from the leaders, might not be purchased too dearly at the price of being forced to attend to the crude egotisms of every puny, would-be orator, who chose to hazard them.

The close of the session was thus very differ