Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Earl of Beaconsfield Benjamin Disraeli (10 best novels of all time txt) ๐
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โHe canโt last ten days,โ said a whig secretary of the treasury with a triumphant glance at Mr Taper as they met in Pall Mall; โYouโre out for our lives.โ
โDonโt you make too sure for yourselves,โ rejoined in despair the dismayed Taper. โIt does not follow that because we are out, that you are in.โ
โHow do you mean?โ
โThere is such a person as Lord Durham in the world,โ said Mr Taper very solemnly.
โPish,โ said the secretary.
โYou may pish,โ said Mr Taper, โbut if we have a radical government, as I believe and hope, they will not be able to get up the steam as they did in โ31; and what with church and corn together, and the Queen Dowager, we may go to the country with as good a cry as some other persons.โ
โI will back Melbourne against the field, now,โ said the secretary.
โLord Durham dined at Kensington on Thursday,โ said Taper, โand not a whig present.โ
โAy; Durham talks very fine at dinner,โ said the secretary, โbut he has no real go in him. When there is a Prince of Wales, Lord Melbourne means to make Durham governor to the heir apparent, and that will keep him quiet.โ
โWhat do you hear?โ said Mr Tadpole, joining them; โI am told he has quite rallied.โ
โDonโt you flatter yourself,โ said the secretary.
โWell, we shall hear what they say on the hustings,โ said Tadpole looking boldly.
โWhoโs afraid!โ said the secretary. โNo, no, my dear fellow, you are dead beat; the stake is worth playing for, and donโt suppose we are such flats as to lose the race for want of jockeying. Your humbugging registration will never do against a new reign. Our great men mean to shell out, I tell you; we have got Croucher; we will denounce the Carlton and corruption all over the kingdom; and if that wonโt do, we will swear till we are black in the face, that the King of Hanover is engaged in a plot to dethrone our young Queen:โ and the triumphant secretary wished the worthy pair good morning.
โThey certainly have a very good cry,โ said Taper mournfully.
โAfter all, the registration might be better,โ said Tadpole, โbut still it is a very good one.โ
The daily bulletins became more significant; the crisis was evidently at hand. A dissolution of parliament at any time must occasion great excitement; combined with a new reign, it inflames the passions of every class of the community. Even the poor begin to hope; the old, wholesome superstition still lingers, that the sovereign can exercise power; and the suffering multitude are fain to believe that its remedial character may be about to be revealed in their instance. As for the aristocracy in a new reign, they are all in a flutter. A bewildering vision of coronets, stars, and ribbons; smiles, and places at court; haunts their noontide speculations and their midnight dreams. Then we must not forget the numberless instances in which the coming event is deemed to supply the long-sought opportunity of distinction, or the long-dreaded cause of utter discomfiture; the hundreds, the thousands, who mean to get into parliament, the units who dread getting out. What a crashing change from lounging in St Jamesโs street to sauntering on Boulogne pier; or, after dining at Brookes and supping at Crockfordโs, to be saved from destruction by the friendly interposition that sends you in an official capacity to the marsupial sympathies of Sydney or Swan River!
Now is the time for the men to come forward who have claims; claims for spending their money, which nobody asked them to do, but which of course they only did for the sake of the party. They never wrote for their party, or spoke for their party, or gave their party any other vote than their own; but they urge their claims,โto something; a commissionership of anything, or a consulship anywhere; if no place to be had, they are ready to take it out in dignities. They once looked to the privy council, but would now be content with an hereditary honour; if they can have neither, they will take a clerkship in the Treasury for a younger son. Perhaps they may get that in time; at present they go away growling with a gaugership; or, having with desperate dexterity at length contrived to transform a tidewaiter into a landwaiter. But there is nothing like askingโexcept refusing.
Hark! it tolls! All is over. The great bell of the metropolitan cathedral announces the death of the last son of George the Third who probably will ever reign in England. He was a good man: with feelings and sympathies; deficient in culture rather than ability; with a sense of duty; and with something of the conception of what should be the character of an English monarch. Peace to his manes! We are summoned to a different scene.
In a palace in a gardenโnot in a haughty keep, proud with the fame, but dark with the violence of ages; not in a regal pile, bright with the splendour, but soiled with the intrigues, of courts and factionsโin a palace in a garden, meet scene for youth, and innocence, and beautyโcame the voice that told the maiden she must ascend her throne!
The council of England
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