Phineas Redux

  CHAPTER XXXIX.

  CAGLIOSTRO.

  It had been settled that Parliament should meet on the Thursday inEaster week, and it was known to the world at large that CabinetCouncils were held on the Friday previous, on the Monday, and on theTuesday; but nobody knew what took place at those meetings. CabinetCouncils are, of course, very secret. What kind of oath the memberstake not to divulge any tittle of the proceedings at these awfulconferences, the general public does not know; but it is presumedthat oaths are taken very solemn, and it is known that they are verybinding. Nevertheless, it is not an uncommon thing to hear openlyat the clubs an account of what has been settled; and, as we allknow, not a council is held as to which the editor of The People'sBanner does not inform its readers next day exactly what tookplace. But as to these three Cabinet Councils there was an increasedmystery abroad. Statements, indeed, were made, very definite andcircumstantial, but then they were various,--and directly opposedone to another. According to The People's Banner, Mr. Daubenyhad resolved, with that enduring courage which was his peculiarcharacteristic, that he would not be overcome by faction, but wouldcontinue to exercise all the functions of Prime Minister until he hadhad an opportunity of learning whether his great measure had beenopposed by the sense of the country, or only by the tactics of anangry and greedy party. Other journals declared that the Ministry asa whole had decided on resigning. But the clubs were in a state ofagonising doubt. At the great stronghold of conservative policy inPall Mall men were silent, embarrassed, and unhappy. The party wasat heart divorced from its leaders,--and a party without leaders ispowerless. To these gentlemen there could be no triumph, whether Mr.Daubeny went out or remained in office. They had been betrayed;--butas a body were unable even to accuse the traitor. As regarded mostof them they had accepted the treachery and bowed their headsbeneath it, by means of their votes. And as to the few who had beenstaunch,--they also were cowed by a feeling that they had beeninstrumental in destroying their own power by endeavouring to protecta doomed institution. Many a thriving county member in those daysexpressed a wish among his friends that he had never meddled withthe affairs of public life, and hinted at the Chiltern Hundreds. Onthe other side, there was undoubtedly something of a rabid desirefor immediate triumph, which almost deserved that epithet of greedywhich was then commonly used by Conservatives in speaking of theiropponents. With the Liberal leaders,--such men as Mr. Gresham andthe two dukes,--the anxiety displayed was, no doubt, on behalfof the country. It is right, according to our constitution, thatthe Government should be entrusted to the hands of those whom theconstituencies of the country have most trusted. And, on behalf ofthe country, it behoves the men in whom the country has placed itstrust to do battle in season and out of season,--to carry on warinternecine,--till the demands of the country are obeyed. A soundpolitical instinct had induced Mr. Gresham on this occasion to attackhis opponent simply on the ground of his being the leader only ofa minority in the House of Commons. But from among Mr. Gresham'sfriends there had arisen a noise which sounded very like a clamourfor place, and this noise of course became aggravated in the earsof those who were to be displaced. Now, during Easter week, theclamour became very loud. Could it be possible that the archfiend ofa Minister would dare to remain in office till the end of a hurriedSession, and then again dissolve Parliament? Men talked of rows inLondon,--even of revolution, and there were meetings in open placesboth by day and night. Petitions were to be prepared, and the countrywas to be made to express itself.

  When, however, Thursday afternoon came, Mr. Daubeny "threw up thesponge." Up to the last moment the course which he intended to pursuewas not known to the country at large. He entered the House veryslowly,--almost with a languid air, as though indifferent to itsperformances, and took his seat at about half-past four. Every manthere felt that there was insolence in his demeanour,--and yetthere was nothing on which it was possible to fasten in the way ofexpressed complaint. There was a faint attempt at a cheer,--for goodsoldiers acknowledge the importance of supporting even an unpopulargeneral. But Mr. Daubeny's soldiers on this occasion were not verygood. When he had been seated about five minutes he rose, still verylanguidly, and began his statement. He and his colleagues, he said,in their attempt to legislate for the good of their country had beenbeaten in regard to a very great measure by a large majority, and incompliance with what he acknowledged to be the expressed opinion ofthe House, he had considered it to be his duty--as his colleagues hadconsidered it to be theirs--to place their joint resignations in thehands of Her Majesty. This statement was received with considerablesurprise, as it was not generally known that Mr. Daubeny had asyet even seen the Queen. But the feeling most predominant in theHouse was one almost of dismay at the man's quiescence. He and hiscolleagues had resigned, and he had recommended Her Majesty tosend for Mr. Gresham. He spoke in so low a voice as to be hardlyaudible to the House at large, and then paused,--ceasing to speak,as though his work were done. He even made some gesture, as thoughstepping back to his seat;--deceived by which Mr. Gresham, at theother side of the table, rose to his legs. "Perhaps," said Mr.Daubeny,--"Perhaps the right honourable gentleman would pardon him,and the House would pardon him, if still, for a moment, he interposedbetween the House and the right honourable gentleman. He could wellunderstand the impatience of the right honourable gentleman,--whono doubt was anxious to reassume that authority among them, thetemporary loss of which he had not perhaps borne with all theequanimity which might have been expected from him. He would promisethe House and the right honourable gentleman that he would not detainthem long." Mr. Gresham threw himself back into his seat, evidentlynot without annoyance, and his enemy stood for a moment looking athim. Unless they were angels these two men must at that moment havehated each other;--and it is supposed that they were no more thanhuman. It was afterwards said that the little ruse of pretending toresume his seat had been deliberately planned by Mr. Daubeny with theview of seducing Mr. Gresham into an act of seeming impatience, andthat these words about his opponent's failing equanimity had beencarefully prepared.

  Mr. Daubeny stood for a minute silent, and then began to pour forththat which was really his speech on the occasion. Those flaccidhalf-pronounced syllables in which he had declared that he hadresigned,--had been studiously careless, purposely flaccid. Itwas his duty to let the House know the fact, and he did his duty.But now he had a word to say in which he himself could take somelittle interest. Mr. Daubeny could be fiery or flaccid as it suitedhimself;--and now it suited him to be fiery. He had a prophecyto make, and prophets have ever been energetic men. Mr. Daubenyconceived it to be his duty to inform the House, and through theHouse the country, that now, at last, had the day of ruin come uponthe British Empire, because it had bowed itself to the dominion of anunscrupulous and greedy faction. It cannot be said that the languagewhich he used was unmeasured, because no word that he uttered wouldhave warranted the Speaker in calling him to order; but, within thevery wide bounds of parliamentary etiquette, there was no limit tothe reproach and reprobation which he heaped on the House of Commonsfor its late vote. And his audacity equalled his insolence. Inannouncing his resignation, he had condescended to speak of himselfand his colleagues; but now he dropped his colleagues as though theywere unworthy of his notice, and spoke only of his own doings,--ofhis own efforts to save the country, which was indeed willing to besaved, but unable to select fitting instruments of salvation. "Hehad been twitted," he said, "with inconsistency to his principlesby men who were simply unable to understand the meaning of the wordConservatism. These gentlemen seemed to think that any man who didnot set himself up as an apostle of constant change must thereforebe bound always to stand still and see his country perish fromstagnation. It might be that there were gentlemen in that House whosetimid natures could not face the dangers of any movement; but forhimself he would say that no word had ever fallen from his lips whichjustified either his friends or his adversaries in classing him amongthe number. If a man be anxious to keep his fire alight, does herefuse to
touch the sacred coals as in the course of nature they areconsumed? Or does he move them with the salutary poker and add freshfuel from the basket? They all knew that enemy to the comfort of thedomestic hearth, who could not keep his hands for a moment from thefire-irons. Perhaps he might be justified if he said that they hadbeen very much troubled of late in that House by gentlemen who couldnot keep their fingers from poker and tongs. But there had now fallenupon them a trouble of a nature much more serious in its effects thanany that had come or could come from would-be reformers. A spirit ofpersonal ambition, a wretched thirst for office, a hankering afterthe power and privileges of ruling, had not only actuated men,--as,alas, had been the case since first the need for men to govern othershad arisen in the world,--but had been openly avowed and put forwardas an adequate and sufficient reason for opposing a measure indisapprobation of which no single argument had been used! The righthonourable gentleman's proposition to the House had been simplythis;--'I shall oppose this measure, be it good or bad, because Idesire, myself, to be Prime Minister, and I call upon those whom Ilead in politics to assist me in doing so, in order that they mayshare the good things on which we may thus be enabled to lay ourhands!'"

  Then there arose a great row in the House, and there seemed to be adoubt whether the still existing Minister of the day would be allowedto continue his statement. Mr. Gresham rose to his feet, but sat downagain instantly, without having spoken a word that was audible. Twoor three voices were heard calling upon the Speaker for protection.It was, however, asserted afterwards that nothing had been saidwhich demanded the Speaker's interference. But all moderate voiceswere soon lost in the enraged clamour of members on each side. Theinsolence showered upon those who generally supported Mr. Daubeny hadequalled that with which he had exasperated those opposed to him;and as the words had fallen from his lips, there had been no purposeof cheering him from the conservative benches. But noise createsnoise, and shouting is a ready and easy mode of contest. For a whileit seemed as though the right side of the Speaker's chair was onlybeaten by the majority of lungs on the left side;--and in the midstof it all Mr. Daubeny still stood, firm on his feet, till gentlemenhad shouted themselves silent,--and then he resumed his speech.

  The remainder of what he said was profound, prophetic, andunintelligible. The gist of it, so far as it could be understoodwhen the bran was bolted from it, consisted in an assurance that thecountry had now reached that period of its life in which rapid decaywas inevitable, and that, as the mortal disease had already shownitself in its worst form, national decrepitude was imminent, andnatural death could not long be postponed. They who attempted toread the prophecy with accuracy were of opinion that the prophet hadintimated that had the nation, even in this its crisis, consentedto take him, the prophet, as its sole physician and to obey hisprescription with childlike docility, health might not only have beenre-established, but a new juvenescence absolutely created. The natureof the medicine that should have been taken was even supposed tohave been indicated in some very vague terms. Had he been allowed tooperate he would have cut the tap-roots of the national cancer, haveintroduced fresh blood into the national veins, and resuscitatedthe national digestion, and he seemed to think that the nation,as a nation, was willing enough to undergo the operation, and betreated as he should choose to treat it;--but that the incubus of Mr.Gresham, backed by an unworthy House of Commons, had prevented, andwas preventing, the nation from having its own way. Therefore thenation must be destroyed. Mr. Daubeny as soon as he had completed hisspeech took up his hat and stalked out of the House.

  It was supposed at the time that the retiring Prime Minister hadintended, when he rose to his legs, not only to denounce hisopponents, but also to separate himself from his own unworthyassociates. Men said that he had become disgusted with politics,disappointed, and altogether demoralized by defeat, and greatcuriosity existed as to the steps which might be taken at the time bythe party of which he had hitherto been the leader. On that evening,at any rate, nothing was done. When Mr. Daubeny was gone, Mr. Greshamrose and said that in the present temper of the House he thoughtit best to postpone any statement from himself. He had receivedHer Majesty's commands only as he had entered that House, and inobedience to those commands, he should wait upon Her Majesty earlyto-morrow. He hoped to be able to inform the House at the afternoonsitting, what was the nature of the commands with which Her Majestymight honour him.

  "What do you think of that?" Phineas asked Mr. Monk as they left theHouse together.

  "I think that our Chatham of to-day is but a very poor copy of himwho misbehaved a century ago."

  "Does not the whole thing distress you?"

  "Not particularly. I have always felt that there has been a mistakeabout Mr. Daubeny. By many he has been accounted as a statesman,whereas to me he has always been a political Cagliostro. Now aconjuror is I think a very pleasant fellow to have among us, if weknow that he is a conjuror;--but a conjuror who is believed to do histricks without sleight of hand is a dangerous man. It is essentialthat such a one should be found out and known to be a conjuror,--andI hope that such knowledge may have been communicated to some menthis afternoon."

  "He was very great," said Ratler to Bonteen. "Did you not think so?"

  "Yes, I did,--very powerful indeed. But the party is broken up toatoms."

  "Atoms soon come together again in politics," said Ratler. "Theycan't do without him. They haven't got anybody else. I wonder what hedid when he got home."

  "Had some gruel and went to bed," said Bonteen. "They say thesescenes in the House never disturb him at home." From whichconversations it may be inferred that Mr. Monk and Messrs. Ratler andBonteen did not agree in their ideas respecting political conjurors.