CHAPTER II. A TRAVELLING ACQUAINTANCE.
Whatever the merits or demerits of the great question, the legislativeunion between England and Ireland,--and assuredly we have neither thetemptation of duty nor inclination to discuss such here,--the meansemployed by Ministers to carry the measure through Parliament were inthe last degree disgraceful. Never was bribery practised with moreopen effrontery, never did corruption display itself with more daringindifference to public opinion; the Treasury office was an open mart,where votes were purchased, and men sold their country, delighted, as acandid member of the party confessed,--delighted "to have a country tosell."
The ardor of a political career, like the passion for the chase, wouldseem in its high excitement to still many compunctious murmuringsof conscience which in calmer moments could not fail to be heard andacknowledged: the desire to succeed, that ever-present impulse towin, steels the heart against impressions which, under less pressingexcitements, had been most painful to endure; and, in this way,honorable and high-minded men have often stooped to acts which,with calmer judgment to guide them, they would have rejected withindignation.
Such was Dick Forester's position at the moment. An aide-de-camp on thestaff of the Viceroy, a near relative of the Secretary, he was intrustedwith many secret and delicate negotiations, affairs in which, had hebeen a third party, he would have as scrupulously condemned the tempteras the tempted; the active zeal of agency allayed, however, all suchqualms of conscience, and every momentary pang of remorse was swallowedup in the ardor for success.