CHAPTER XIX.

Among innumerable false, unmoved,
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,

His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal;
Nor number, nor example, with him wrought
To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind
Though single. From midst them forth he pass'd,
Long way through hostile scorn, which he sustain'd
Superior."
MILTON.

OT the time we are speaking of, the Government of the day was carried on with a feeble majority in the House of Commons. At the head of a powerful Opposition stood Sir Percival Poyntz, the first statesman of the age. Yet it was not strictly of an Opposition, that he was the acknowledged leader; for, submitting to be bound by no factious ties, he acted rather as an independent member, though influencing and draw

ing others to himself by a sort of natural fascination, like the sun in his orbit, than as the domineering spirit which looked for, and expected, implicit obedience from them according to the veerings of his own mind. It was known that he had expressed himself not unfavourably to the principle of the gigantic measure with which Harold was entrusted; and to his teaching Harold implicitly subscribed, as a son to his parent, whose hopes of success accordingly rose, as he thought of the moral weight which would attach to any opinion in its behalf of so great a public servant. He had been even honoured

with an interview with Sir Percival on the sub

ject in the course of which he had conde

scended not only to listen to the young member's scheme and reasoning, but himself put to him a variety of enquiries, and informed himself of many professional details, which Harold, by his study of the subject, was able to supply him with. But the Government, and especially the Chancellor, were known to be against him; had resolved to try their strength in opposing the

bill, which Harold was about to 'bring in' for 'an UNION of all the Courts of Westminster Hall,' and had not hesitated to declare that their remaining in office depended on the result of the contest.

And now at length the day had arrived, when the long expected debate was to come on, on which so many immensely important professional arrangements were to hang. Many even who understood not that the fate of a Government was connected with it, and could hardly form an opinion on the merits of the particular question, looked to it, nevertheless, with an extraordinary interest, as one which Common Report gave out as fraught with mysterious political consequences, that would one day infallibly affect themselves. Many looked anxiously to it as the battle-field on which the strength of two hostile sections was to be measured, and which might free the country from a weak Ministry, of which it had grown weary, and which had been indebted for its long continuance in office rather to the divided state of the oppo

site party, than from any intrinsic power or pretensions of its own.

It was a beautiful afternoon in the latter end of May, when Harold and Catharine, declining the crowds which were collected in the fashionable drives in Hyde Park, were strolling in the quietest paths of the noble gardens which adjoin them. They were naturally conversing on the anticipated result of that eventful evening.

"I had always fancied, Kate,” said Harold, that the sorest intellectual trial was to sit still under a system at which one's reason revolts. There is one equally sore in politics; it is to be the slave of party. To be consistent-men will become fools."

"Whereas consistency," replied Catharine, " is surely not the adhesion through life to one set of principles, but the readiness to forfeit our reputation for discernment, so long as we can hold Truth fast."

"And yet look at our chief public men. How few address themselves without party bias to any great national question! As if Truth ever

yet ran through all the opinions of one and the same political school."

Any other view of the case amounts to a presumptuous claim of man to infallibility." "Yet what courage is necessary to avow an altered conviction! Great men, whose credit for intellectual pre-eminence would not suffer by the confession, cannot afford to do so; how much less they, whose change is at once identified with infirmity and narrowness of judgment. Integrity of motives without solidity of judgment will not command respect. When they

both meet in the same fortunate individual-and oh! how seldom do they!-then is authority and example a safe and unerring guide."

"The true difficulty," said Catharine, “is, no doubt, to see the point where reverence for authority ought to cease, and the reliance on our own judgment to begin."

"One great man, Kate, and only one, I know -splendid in abilities, unimpeachable in his integrity-unspoiled by the world's flatteries, undismayed by its revilings. Oh! if he were