 CHAPTER VIII. Francis makes a favourable impression on Harriet Phillips. With all Harriet Phillips's success in society she had never had much admiration from the other sex. Because she did not attribute so much to anything as to her own superiority, it really wanted a great deal of courage for an average mortal to propose to her. Her unconscious egotism had something rather grand in it. It was rarely obtrusive, but it was always there. Her mind was naturally a vigorous one, but it had moved in a narrow channel, and whatever was out of her own groove she ignored. She appreciated whatever Jane Melville knew that she was herself acquainted with, but whatever she, Harriet Phillips, was ignorant of must be valueless. Now a comfortable opinion of oneself is not at all a disagreeable thing for the possessor, and kept within due bounds it is also pleasant to one's friends and acquaintances. Brandon had been disposed to take Harriet Phillips at her own valuation, and to consider her very superior to himself in many things. While she liked him, for his attentions gave her importance, and though he wearied her sometimes, she could make up her mind to pass her life with him without any feeling of its being a great sacrifice. But he must stay in England. All his talk of returning to Victoria was only talk. Her influence would be quite sufficient to induce him to do that. Though her heart was, in this lukewarm way, given to Mr. Brandon, she had a great curiosity to see this Mr. Hogarth, whom Brandon had called, in his rather vulgar colonial phraseology, just her sort. She laid herself out to please the newcomer, and Brandon was disposed to take offense, and did so. The events of the morning had made an impression on him, but if she had possessed the tact which sympathy and imagination alone can give, she might have appeased him and brought him back to his allegiance. She did not guess where the shoe pinched, and she still further estranged the lover she had been secure of. She was charmed at the idea of making him a little jealous. It was the first opportunity she had ever had of flirting with another person in his presence, and the flirtation was carried on in such a sensible way that there was not a word said he had a right to be offended with. She only talked of things about which Brandon knew very little, and Mr. Hogarth a great deal, and she thought she was convincing both gentlemen of her great conversational powers. It was really time Brandon should be brought to the point, and this was the way to do it. While Brandon felt the chains not of love, but of habit, dropping off him, and wished that Elsie Melville was beside him, and not sitting between her cousin and another Australian, who was talking to her vigorously on his favourite subject of spirit-wrapping and table-turning, and she was listening so patiently and making little smart speeches, he could tell quite well by the expression of her eyes, though he could not hear the low, sweet voice distinctly enough to tell exactly what she said. He recollected the party at Mrs. Rennies, and how pleasant her voice was, and felt Harriet Phillips's was not at all musical, at least when she was talking about the fine arts and to-morrow's exhibition to Mr. Hogarth, while Francis wondered at anyone presuming to have so much to say while his cousin Jane was in the room. Now, as to table-turning, Mr. Dempster, said Harriet, who fancied she saw Brandon's eyes directed to that side of the table a little too often, you will never convince me there is an atom of truth in it. I am quite satisfied with Faraday's explanation. You may think you have higher authority, but I bow to Faraday. Faraday's explanation is most insufficient and most unsatisfactory. It cannot account for things I have seen with my own eyes, said Mr. Dempster. But to what do all these manifestations tend, asked Jane, of what value are the revelations you received from the so-called spiritual world? Of infinite value to me, said Mr. Dempster, I have had my faith strengthened and my sorrows comforted. We do want to know more of our departed friends, to have more assurance of their continued existence and of their continued identity than we have without spiritualism. I always believed that nothing was lost in the divine economy, that as matter only decayed to give way to new powers of life, so spirit must only leave the material form it inhabits to be active in a new sphere, or to be merged in the one infinite intelligence. But this is merely an analogy, a strong one, but only an analogy which cannot prove a fact. But Mr. Dempster, I think we have quite sufficient grounds for believing in immortality from revelation. In scientific matters I bow to Faraday, as I said before. In religious matters I would not go any further than the Bible. But if that does not satisfy you, of course you must inquire of chairs and tables, said Miss Phillips, with a condescending irony which she thought very cutting. The Bible is indistinct and indefinite as to the future state, so much so that theologians differ on the possibilities of recognition in heaven, said Mr. Dempster. Now, eternal existence without complete identity is not to me desirable. That our beloved ones have no longer the warm personal interest in us which they felled in life, that they are perhaps merged in the perfection of God or undergoing transmigration out of one form of intelligence to another without any recollection of what happened in a former state, is not consoling to the yearning human heart that can never forget, and with all the sufferings which memory may bring, would not lose the saddest memory of love for worlds. This assurance of continued identity is what I find in spiritualism, and it meets the want of my soul. What extraordinary heathenish ideas, said Miss Phillips, who in her derbyshire retreat had never heard anything of pantheism or of this doctrine of methampsychosis as being entertained by sane Englishmen. If you have such notions I do not wonder at your flying to anything, for my part I have never been troubled with doubts. The Bible is, I think, purposely indistinct on the subject of the future life, said Elsie. Each soul imagines a heaven for itself, different in some degree from that of any other soul, but to me memory and identity are so necessary to the idea of continued existence that I cannot conceive of a heaven without it. I do not know, said Mr. Dempster, shaking his head, till I saw these wonderful manifestations I had no clear or satisfactory feeling of it, and now I have. The evidence is first hand from the departed spirits themselves, and their revelations are consistent with our highest ideas of the goodness of God and of the eternal nature of love. That which is seen is not faith, St. Paul says, and the very minuteness of your information would lead me to doubt its genuineness, said Francis. I do not think that it was intended we should have such assurance, but that we should have a large faith in a God who will do well for us hereafter as he has done well for us here. But though I may not feel the need of such assurance, I do not deny that others may. There is much that is very remarkable about these spiritual manifestations. Whether it is mesmerism or delusion or positive fraud, I think it is a remarkable instance of the questioning spirit of the day, unsatisfied with old creeds and desirous of reconstructing some new belief. I should like you to come to a seance, said Mr. Dempster, glad to find someone who was disposed to inquire on the subject. He had only recently become a convert, and was very anxious to induce others to think with him. I am quite sure that you will see something that will impress you with the reality of the manifestations. I should like to go too, said Mrs. Phillips. I certainly should not, said Harriet. I think these things are quite wicked. These questions have never given me any trouble, said Mr. Phillips, and to my mind Mr. Dempster, the revelations, such as I have heard at least, are very purile and contemptible. But that there must be a singular excitement attending even an imaginary conversation with the dead I can easily believe, and I do not care for exposing myself to it. Nor I, said Brandon, as Miss Alice says, I have got my own ideas of heaven, and I am satisfied with it. I think we are not intended to know all the particulars. Why did Brandon, in giving no original opinion of his own, poor fellow, he was incapable of that, give Elsie's argument in preference to hers? Miss Phillips felt still more inclined to be agreeable to Mr. Hogarth from this light to herself, and began to think that an inquiring spirit, in a man at least, was more admirable than Brandon's lazy satisfaction with things as they are at present. Mr. Dempster's eagerness after a possible convert was only to be satisfied by Francis making an appointment with him to attend a séance on the following evening in his own house, and then the conversation changed to politics, English, foreign, and colonial, in which Francis and his cousins were much interested. Mr. Dempster was rather an elderly man who had lost his wife and all his family, with the exception of one daughter who was married and settled in South Australia. Though so enthusiastic a believer in spiritualism, he was a very shrewd and well-informed man in mundane matters. He had been a very old colonist on the Adelaide side, and having been a townsman had taken a more active part in politics than the Victorian squatters, Phillips and Brandon. They were all in the full tide of talk about the advantages and disadvantages of giving to their infant states constitutional government, and allowing each colony to frame its constitution for itself. The good and evil effects of manhood suffrage and vote by ballot Francis for the first time heard discussed by people who had lived under these systems, and English, French, and American blunders in the science of politics looked at from a new and independent point of view. At what Jane and Elsie considered the most interesting part of the conversation, Mrs. Phillips and Harriet, who cared for none of these subjects, gave the signal for the ladies to withdraw, so they had to leave with them. Jane saw the children to bed, and Elsie got on with Mrs. Phillips' bonnet, while the gentlemen remained in the dining room, but both reappeared in the drawing room by the time they came upstairs. Elsie did not like to disappoint any one, and the idea struck her that if she got up very early in the morning, and things went all well with her, she could finish Harriet's bonnet also in time, for really Mrs. Phillips' new one would make her sister-in-laws look very shabby. It was the first new bonnet she had been trusted to make since she came. She had had carte blanche for the materials and had pleased herself with the style, and Elsie believed it would rather be her chef-dove. The idea of giving Mrs. Phillips such an unexpected pleasure made her feel quite kindly disposed towards her, though the feeling was not reciprocated, for as Harriet did not know of Elsie's intentions, she could not be supposed to be grateful for them. But on the contrary, she felt a grudge at her for enjoying herself in this way at the expense of her bonnet. Mrs. Phillips played and sang very well. Her father was fond of music, and that taste had been very well cultivated for her time and opportunities, and she had kept up with all the modern music very meritoriously. Perhaps it was this, more than anything else, that had made her Dr. Phillips' favorite daughter, for in all other things Georgiana was more self-forgetful and more sympathizing. Stanley, too, admired his sister's accomplishment. He had missed the delightful little family concerts and the glee singing that he had left for his bush-life, and if it could have been possible for his wife to acquire music it would certainly have been a boon to him. But as she had no ear and no taste, even he saw that it was impracticable. But Emily was to be an accomplished musician. She did not go to bed with the little ones, but sat up to play her two little heirs to her papa's friends, to teach her confidence, Mrs. Phillips said, but in reality to give her a little spur to application. As for Emily needing confidence, whispered Brandon to Alice Melville, that is a splendid absurdity. These colonial children do not know what bashfulness or timidity means. Not but what I am very fond of all the Philipses, and Emily is my favorite. She is mine, too, said Elsie. She is an affectionate and original child, with quick perceptions and quick feelings. I believe she is very fond of me. I like little people to be fond of me. Not big people, too, said Brandon, with an expression half comic, half sad. Emily came up to her dear friend, Mr. Brandon, and her favorite, Alice. Aunt Harriet is going to play and sing now, and after that, Alice, you must sing. I like your songs better than Aunt Harriet's twenty times, because I can hear all your words. I cannot sing, said Elsie. I never had a lesson in either music or singing in my life. Oh! But you sing very nicely. Indeed she does, Mr. Brandon, and there is not a thing that happens that she cannot turn into a song or poem, just like what there is in books, and you would think it very pretty if you only heard them. We get her to bring her work into our nursery in the evenings, and there we have stories and songs from her. You are in luck, said Mr. Brandon, but now that you have told us of Miss Alice Melville's accomplishments, we must be made to share in your good fortune. No, indeed, said Elsie, as Byrne says, crooning to a body's cell does well enough, but my crooning is not fit for company except that of uncritical children. You know I am as uncritical as the various child, said Brandon. I must have given you a very erroneous impression of my character if you can feel the least awe of me, but I recollect your twisting a very innocent speech of mine the first evening I had the pleasure of meeting you into something very severe. That was rather ill-natured. Alice is not ill-natured at all, said Emily. Aunt Harriet sometimes is. She is looking cross at me now for talking while she is singing. It is very rude in all of us, said Elsie, composing herself to give attention to Miss Phillips's song. I'll tell you what, you dear old boy, whispered Emily, I don't think Alice will sing here or tell you any of her lovely stories, but I will smuggle you into the nursery some day, and you will just have a treat. What have I done since I came to England, said Brandon in the same undertone, that I should have been banished in this cruel way from the nursery? Did you ever refuse me admission at Werowelta? Did I not kiss every one of you in your little nightclothes and see you tucked into bed? If I was worthy of that honour then, why am I debarred from it now? You saved our lives, Papa says, you and Peggy, so we always liked you, and for my part I like you as well as I ever did now, but we are in England now, and it is so different from Werowelta. Dear old Werowelta, I wish I was back to it. I wish Papa was not so rich, for then we would go back again, but it's no use as long as he has got enough of money to stay here. The letters that came the other day, you recollect. I got none, said Brandon, I suppose mine are sent by Southampton. Well, I don't think they had good news, or Papa's face looked rather long, and he has been so quiet and dull ever since, so I am in hopes that things are not going very well without him, and then we will have another beautiful long voyage with you, and get back to dear, darling Australia again. Harriet wants to go back, too. What a chatterbox you are, Emily, said her aunt, who had finished her song. It is quite time you were in bed. Not quite, auntie. Papa said I might sit up till ten tonight, and Mr. Brandon and I are so busy talking about old times that I do not feel it a bit late. Old times indeed, said Harriet, what old times can a little chit like you find a talk of? Oh, the dear old times at Wiry-Wilta, when we were such friends, and the time that I cannot recollect of when there was a fire, and Peggy and this old fellow saved our lives. I wish I could remember about it. Mama does, though. Indeed I do, said Mrs. Phillips, with a tranquil expression of satisfaction at the thought of the danger she had escaped. We was all in terrible danger, and all through that horrid doctor. Stanley should have left me my own way and taken me to Melbourne, but he would not listen to reason. Well, Lily, you are none of the worse now, and I hope you do not feel it burdensome to be so much obliged to our old friend Brandon. Oh, no, not at all. You need not be, he said, laughing. Don't attempt to make a hero of me. A mere neighborly good turn happened to have important consequences. Peggy's conduct was far beyond mine. But you were badly scorched, said Emily. Do let us see the scar on your arm once more. I have not seen it in England. Brandon indulged the child, turned up his sleeve, and Emily gave the arm a hug and a kiss. This was rather a strange exhibition for a drawing-room, Harriet Phillips thought, but Brandon never was much of a gentleman. Even Stanley had sadly fallen back in his manners in Australia, and what could be expected of Brandon. Mr. Hogarth had more taste. He had the dignified reserve of a man of birth and fortune. He had made remarks on her musical performance that showed he was really a judge. It was not often that she had met with any man so variously accomplished or so perfectly well-bred. He had promised to accompany them to the exhibition of paintings on the morrow, and she had great pleasure in anticipating his society, if it were not for the thought of her bonnet. Chapter 27 of Mr. Hogarth's Will This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Gillian Brandt Mr. Hogarth's Will by Catherine Helen Spence Chapter 27 A bonnet gained and a lover lost. My letters have come at last, said Brandon next morning, as he joined his friends at breakfast. My overseer, I suppose, wanted to show his economy and posted them by Southampton Mail, which does not suit me at all. I would rather do without my dinner on Mail Day than have my letters delayed for nearly a week, and now there is bad news for me. I must leave by first ship. Had I got my letters when you received yours, I should have gone by the mail steamer and saved a month, but I cannot possibly manage to get off so soon. Oh, Mr. Brandon, said Mrs. Phillips calmly, there surely is no such need for hurry. Everything is going to the dogs at my station. I will probably have to buy land at a high price, and there appears to have been a great mismanagement from the accounts I hear. Another six months like the last, and I will be a ruined man. It is very hard that one cannot take a short holiday without suffering so grievously for it. What were your accounts, Phillips? I think you said they were rather unsatisfactory. Not very good, certainly, but not so bad as that comes to. You will look to worry Wilta a little when you return and send me your opinion. I had better entrust you with full powers to act for me, for I should prefer you as my attorney to Grant. I hope he will not be offended at the transfer, said Brandon. Oh, I think not. He took it very reluctantly, for he said his own affairs were enough for him. And perhaps a little more than enough, said Brandon, with a smile. In that case, I will be very glad to do all in my power for you. I have no wish to return to Australia, said Mr. Phillips. If I can possibly afford to live here, with a family like mine, England offers so many advantages. In fact, there is only one place in the world worth living in, and that is London. Very true, if you have enough to live on, said Brandon, shrugging his shoulders, I must go now to work as hard as ever to get things set to rights again. And perhaps in another dozen of years, when I am feeble, old and gray, I may return and spend the poor remnant of my days in this delightful center of civilization. But with me, fortunately, there are only the two alternatives, either London or the bush of Australia. There is no middle course of life desirable. If I cannot attain the one, I must make the best of the other. Harriet Phillips listened to all this and believed that matters are much worse with Brandon than they really were. She had no fancy for a 12 years banishment from England, nor for a rough life in the bush. Mr. Brandon had been represented to her as a thriving settler who had made money. She saw the very comfortable style in which her brother lived, and she had no objection to such an establishment for herself. But she was not so particularly fond of Mr. Brandon as to accept for his sake a life so very different and so very much inferior. She felt that she had been deceived, and she did not like being deceived or mistaken, and she still less liked to make mistakes. And instead of blaming herself, she was angry with everyone else, her brother, her sister-in-law, Brandon himself, for leading her to believe that his circumstances were so much better than they were. Of course, he would ask her. He could not help doing so, but as to accepting him, that was quite a different question. She had put on her old bonnet with her grudge at Elsie, and when Mrs. Phillips appeared in the drawing room ready for the party to the exhibition in all the splendor of her new one, which really looked lovely, and she lovely in it, and Harriet caught the reflection of both figures in the large mirror, she felt still more dissatisfied with everybody than she had done before. The gentlemen were ready, and they were just about to start when a light quick step came to the door, and a little tap was heard. Harriet opened it and was delighted to see Elsie holding in her hand the second bonnet completed, equally beautiful, equally tasteful, and apparently quite as expensive. Oh, Alice! How good of you! What a love of a bonnet! Come in and see, Mr. Hogarth! Look, Mrs. Phillips! And Alice was introduced a little unwillingly into the drawing room to be complimented on her taste and her dispatch, and to shake hands with the two gentlemen. Miss Phillips was too much engrossed with her bonnet, and with the improvement it would make in her appearance to observe the earnest, anxious looks of her two fancied admirers as they greeted her sister's ladies made, or that they looked with interest and concern on her tired face, which, though now a little flushed with excitement, bore to those who knew the circumstances traces of having been up very late and very early over her work. I knew she could do it, Harriet whispered to Mr. Brandon when Alice left the room. She is so excessively quick. I never would have said so much about it yesterday if I had not known she could easily do it. And does not mine look as well as Mrs. Phillips? I said it would. Though she accepted Mr. Hogarth's arm and went to see the pictures with a better judge than Brandon in all the triumph of her new bonnet, the lightest, the most becoming she had ever had in her life, but her influence with Walter Brandon was lost forever. He wished he had Jane Melville with her good common sense, or Elsie with her sweet voice and winning ways, hanging on his arm instead of Mrs. Phillips, who was very uninteresting to him, though her great beauty and excellent style of dress made her an object of interest to other people and who always enjoyed being well-stared at in public places. But Jane was engaged with her pupils at this time, and Elsie was always kept very busy so that neither of them could accompany the party, and Francis Hogarth felt disappointed for he had anticipated the society of one or both of them. How curiously the egotist, who fancies everyone as engrossed with him or her, would be disappointed if he or she could see the real thoughts of people about them. How Harriet Phillips would have started if she could have read the hearts of Hogarth and Brandon and seen what a very infinitesimal share she had in either. Francis was only impelled to pay attention to Miss Phillips by his natural sense of politeness and by the wish to make the situation of his cousins in the family pleasant as far as it lay in his power to do so. While Brandon, who had at last struck the keynote of Harriet's character, was astonished to find new proofs of her selfishness and egotism peeping out in the most trifling circumstances, he observed how different her manner was toward him now that a man of property in the old country had appeared in the circle of her acquaintances, and he could not fail to see that an additional coldness had come over her when his circumstances were supposed to be less flourishing, and this made him rather disappointed to make the most and worse of his bad news. In Derbyshire, where she had her own established place in the household and where her father and sister, Georgina, gave way to her so much, she had appeared more amiable than she did now. The armed neutrality which she maintained with her sister-in-law had amused Brandon at first, but now it appeared to him to be un-lady-like and ungraceful to accept of hospitality in her brother's house without any gratitude or any forbearance. He began to question the reality of her very great superiority over Mrs. Phillips. With all her advantages of education and society, she ought to have shown more gentleness and affection both to her brother's wife and his children. He analyzed, as he had never done before, her expressions and weighed her opinions and found they generally had more sounds and sense and her habitual assumption that she knew everything much better than other people became tiresome when he did not believe in her superiority. He began, too, to contrast the charm of the face when the color went and came with every emotion with that of one so un-impressable as Harriet Phillips' whose self-possession was nearly as different from that of Jane Melville as it was from the timidity and diffidence of Elsie. Jane's calmness was the result of a strong will mastering the strong emotions which she really felt and not in the absence of any powerful feeling or emotion whatever. Brandon had learned to like Jane better as he knew more of her and rather enjoyed being preached to by one who could practice as well as preach. He felt that if she was superior to him she did not look down on him and she certainly had the power of making him speak well and bringing out the very large amount of real useful practical knowledge that he had acquired in his Australian life. Her eagerness to hear everything about Australia and Australians certainly was in pleasing contrast to Miss Phillips' distaste for all things and people colonial. But above all, Miss Phillips' want of consideration for Alice Melville had weaned Mr. Brandon's heart from her. It was not merely un-ladylike, it was un-womanly. He could not love a wife who had so little sympathy and so little generosity. End of Chapter 27 Recording by Gillian Brandt, St. Paul, Minnesota Chapter 28 of Mr. Hogarth Swill This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Gillian Brandt Mr. Hogarth Swill by Katherine Helen Spence Chapter 28 A Seance Francis Hogarth did not forget his promise to Mr. Dempster. I went to his house at the hour appointed to be witness of the seance. A number of his friends and fellow converts were there and the proceedings of the evening were opened by a short and earnest prayer that none but good spirits should be permitted to be present and that all the communications they may be permitted to hear might be blessed to the souls of all of them. The medium was a thin, nervous-looking youth of about nineteen, but, as Mr. Dempster assured Mr. Hogarth, was in every way to be trusted as his character was irreproachable and of great sincerity and simplicity. Francis was very incredulous as to the appearance being caused by spiritual agency and though he could give no satisfactory explanation of the extraordinary movements of tables, easy chairs, sofas, etc., he felt that these things were very undignified and absurd, as every unbeliever always feels at first, but the eagerness of the large party who were gathered together had something infectious in it. Many of them had known severe bereavement, many of them had been tossed on the dark sea of doubt and despondency, and the brief message communicated by raps or by the voice of the medium gave them consolation and hope. To Francis the details communicated appeared to be meager and unsatisfactory. The spirits all said that they were happy, which to some present was a fact of inestimable value, but to him it was a matter of course. He never had believed, since he had thought out the subject in early manhood, that God would continue existence if he did not make it a blessing, but to others who, like many before him, had intelligently accepted of a sterner theology and who had been struggling through years of chaotic doubts and fancies for footing on which to rest, he saw that these assurances give real strength and support, and our head past admits these manifestations, the interest of the believers continued to be unflagging, but Francis felt a little tired of it. He had lost no dear friend by death. The future world had not the intense personal interest to him that it had to the others. The dearest beings in the world to him were his two cousins, and they were divided from him by circumstances almost as cruel as the grave. How few have done justice to the sad partings, the mournful alienations that have been caused by circumstances. Bereavement in all its varied bitterness has been sung by many poets and strains worthy of the subject, but circumstances are so insidious and often so prosaic that their tragical operation has been rarely treated of in verse. His thoughts reoccurred as they always did when he felt sad or serious to Jane Melville, to the will that had brought them together and at the same time so cruelly parted them, to the unknown father whose own life had been blighted by the loss of domestic happiness dealing so fatal a blow to the son whom he meant to bless and reward, but placing him in circumstances where he could not help loving Jane and forbidding, so far as he could forbid, the marriage of two souls made for one another. Francis was wondering if his father now saw the mistake he had committed or regretted it when he was startled by the announcement that his father was in the room and wished to communicate with him. How am I to know it as he, said Francis, starting up incredulously, but at the same time somewhat odd by the mere possibility that such a one was there, out of the body, owning him as his son, which he had not done while he was alive. Does the spirit mean to communicate by raps or through the medium, asked Mr. Dempster? By raps, was the answer given. Take the alphabet in your own hands, said Mr. Dempster, and ask the spirit his name and then pass your finger over the alphabet. The wrap will arrest you at the right letter. Francis passed his finger along the alphabet, half disdainfully, half in curiosity. The raps stopped him at the letter H. He had never thought the curious little tap sounded so unearthly before. Next he was stopped at E, then at N, then at R, and next at Y, and so on until the full name of Henry Hogarth was spelled out. You wish to communicate with me? Then you love me now? The three quick raps meaning yes was the immediate reply. Are you satisfied with what I have done at Cross Hall since your death? Again the alphabet was called for and the raps spelled out, very much pleased. Are you sorry for the will you made? All will be well in the end, was spelled out. Did you see your nieces suffering unmoved, their poverty, their disappointments, their unfitness for the work that you had set them to do? They are better for what they have suffered, was spelled out, and you too. Does the letter in my pocket come from my mother? The three raps replied in the affirmative. Did you give her an annuity as she says you did? A single raps meaning no was the reply. What did you give her then to make her for go her claims on you? A sum of money was the reply. Francis observed a great difference in the character of the raps preceding from Mr. Hogarth from those of the spirit last summoned which had been supposed to be that of Mr. Dempster's eldest daughter who had died at sixteen and of a lingering disease. The latter were faint and almost inaudible to an unpracticed ear while those of his father were firm and distinct. There was never any power of knowing from what part of the room the raps would come and as answer after answer appeared to come so readily to his questions it is not to be wondered that Francis felt excited and awed at the mysterious intercourse. Advise me my father tell me what to do if you see more and know than more I can do. Should I assist my mother as she asks me to do? The single impatient rap meaning no was the immediate reply. Is she not in poverty and want? Again the answer was no. Should I not write to her? No I have nothing to do with her was the answer. Can I ever have what I most desire in the world you promise improvement I want happiness said Francis passionately startled out of himself by the extraordinary pertinence of the answers to his questions and careless in the company of absolute strangers as to what they thought of him. Patience I watch over you was the reply. What do you do in the spiritual world? I am learning answered the spirit from one who loves me. What is her name asked Francis. The alphabet was in his hands. He was anxious not to let any sign of his give any clue in case of its being all in posture and extraordinary quickness of sight. He purposely passed over the letters but was wrapped back by the recognized signal so the name Marguerite was spelled out. Yes he said to himself you think all is well in the end you have met Marguerite in the spirit world after being separated for a lifetime in this and this is very sweet to you but I want Jane now to help me to live worthily. Can I win her in this life? After a time said the spirit wrapping by the alphabet this answer to his inaudible question. You then can answer mental questions thought Francis. What connection can Mr. Phillips possibly have with Mrs. Peck or rather Elizabeth Hogarth? But to this inaudible question the spirit made no reply and told him through the medium that he was disinclined for any further communication. Certainly it was a question which he felt conscious he had no right to put after what Mr. Phillips had said to him. The spirit was in the right not to answer it. Are you convinced said Mr. Dempster who had seen the surprise with which Mr. Hogarth had spelled out the answers? I am staggered said Francis. The general answers might have been given at random but the names I am convinced were unknown to everyone here except myself. It is always the names that convince people said a friend of the hosts. I have asked some questions as to the future said Francis. I do not know if it is allowable to do so. Do your spirits claim to have a knowledge of what is to come? Oh yes they do those of the highest class in particular said Mr. Dempster. I do not see how they can said Francis musingly to know the future is a prerogative of omniscience and even the highest created intelligence cannot tell what his purpose may be. How do we guess that the future was sufficient accuracy to direct us in the present but by generalization from experience. Now a departed spirit certainly as a wider experience sees more into other souls and their workings than we can possibly do while encumbered with these robes of clay and consequently can make a juster generalization said Mr. Dempster. But not an infallible one said Francis. No certainly not said Mr. Dempster. But as to the present their views are sure to be correct said Francis. If they are good spirits and not lying spirits we prayed against their appearance and I do not believe that the spirit who has been communicating with you was of that kind said Mr. Dempster. How then do you judge between lying spirits and true ones asked Francis. By the nature of their communications a false or an immoral message cannot be delivered by a good spirit. Then you still continue to be the judges of the spirits. You do not bow your morality to theirs you select and reject as you see good. Morality is universal and eternal said Mr. Dempster. Even God himself cannot make evil good or good evil by any fiat of his own. Then have these manifestations taught you anything that could not have been otherwise learned asked Francis. They have taught me much that I could not have otherwise learned I cannot say what other people have attained to through pure reason or through a simple faith in the revealed will of God. There are diversities of administration but the same spirit said Mr. Dempster with a simple earnestness that weighed much with Francis. But here Mr. Dempster's attention was caught to a message from an old friend who had just died one of the saddest deaths having been lost in the Australian scrub 12 years before. Mr. Dempster was stronger than those of Mr. Hogarth being violent and following immediately on the question wherever a negative or affirmative was used. Mr. Dempster said he had been a powerful young man of the most unquestionable determination and that the raps were always consonant to the character of the spirit when in life. He eagerly turned to identify him the names were correctly given the date of his death the length of time he had existed the order and the close he had on when he died. Then a message was sent to his aged mother who had so long mourned for her youngest born that he was expecting her soon to join him in the spirit land the place where the old lady lived was mentioned and her state of health was described as being bad all perfectly true perfectly true Mr. Hogarth poor Tim his was a distressing fate something good in manifestations this evening but I scarcely looked for anything so perfectly satisfactory as this every name and every date exactly correct are you not convinced now I am certainly very much staggered said Francis have you been thinking much about your friend or his mother lately not particularly that I know of but I liked him very much and I often think of his solitary death have you heard that his mother was in bad health she has been an invalid for years and you heard her age but we must make a note of the date and ascertain if she is particularly worse tonight I feel sure that there are not many days of this earth for her and how blessed a thing it is that we have such an assurance of a reunion and recognition of these communications to give us when Francis got into the open air after the excitement of the evening he was inclined to think all had been a dream or a delusion but the answers to the names reoccurred with startling significance the difficulty and almost the impossibility of any cheat or collusion and the apparent sincerity of all who had been sitting by him during the manifestations increased the bewilderment of his mind I must see Jane about this tomorrow he said her clear head can perhaps solve this curious problem but if I had not seen it I would not have believed what I saw will she believe without seeing yes she would receive my testimony for I would receive hers after a time I may hope to be happy how long a time I wonder End of Chapter 28 Recording by Gillian Brandt St. Paul, Minnesota Book 2, Chapter 11 of Mr. Hogarth's Will This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Mr. Hogarth's Will by Catherine Helen Spence Book 2, Chapter 11 Spiritualism, Love, and Politics Great was the grief of Emily when she heard that Mr. Brandon was going away in a week or two and that he might never come back to England for a dozen of years and now instead of spending the rest of his time in London with them he had to go to Ashfield to spend his last days in England with his mother and sisters and nephews and nieces She felt quite wronged by this conduct and bad him good-bye when he came to take his temporary leave of them with an amount of sulkiness rather foreign to her character Lessons were far greater bore than usual on that day and both Emily and Harriet were sorely After they were set free for two hours in the middle of the day Jane found her cousin was waiting for her to go out with him and she wished very particularly to see him on account of some news she had got from Scotland He had not been satisfied to have none of her society on the preceding day and had appointed with Mrs. Phillips to come when she would be at leisure which that lady had forgotten or neglected to tell Jane or Elsie It was Jane alone whom he wished to see that he could speak about the communication with reference to his letter Jane was sorry that Elsie was not asked to accompany their walk but when Francis said he had something on his mind and proceeded to tell all the singular circumstances of the previous evening she listened with the greatest attention and with a suspended judgment When he came to the mental question which related to herself he simply called it something on which his heart was greatly set that might have been his allotments He asked no questions and took no notice of his want of completeness in his narrative Then he told of the inquiry as to Mrs. Peck's connection with Mr. Phillips which he ought not to have asked and which had received no answer He paused for Jane's opinion before he came to narrate Mr. Dempster's message from his friend lost in the bush Now, what do you think of all this, Jane? I am a little staggered, as you were, she said I wish you had heard more or less Should I then follow this advice so strangely given? I think the advice exactly corresponds with what you had resolved to do at any rate It need not influence you either one way or the other You asked my advice the other day but neither from me nor from a departed spirit should you accept of or follow any advice which appears to your own soul not to be good You cannot shift off your personal responsibility As I said, it is your affair, not mine and I feel sorry that consideration for me and for my generous employer has weighed so much with you that you scarcely give the claims of your mother there just do And the spirit said she was my mother but at the same time advised or rather commanded me to have nothing to do with her I do not wish to have anything to do with her What is it to be grateful for such a loveless, joyless life as mine has been thwarted even now in my dearest hopes and wishes Francis said, Jane, you have a great deal to be thankful for and so have I With all the sufferings of the past year I would not have been without it for the world We have both learned much both from circumstances and from each other Jane, I am weary of all this talk about progress and perfection I am hungering for happiness as I told this strange interlocutor last night said Francis earnestly And you will attain to it, Francis but do not set your heart on what it is not right or wise or expedient for you to obtain and you cannot look me in the face and say that if one thing is denied you have not many sources of happiness Jane looked at him with her sisterly eyes feeling the pain she was giving but determined not to show that she had any personal regrets It was very kind but it was very discouraging She felt for him like a sister and nothing more If I have any eyes, said Francis trying violently to change the subject Brandon is still an admirer of your sisters What in the world keeps him from declaring himself Why does he not offer her all he has and all he may hope to gain He cares no more from his Phillips than I do and she would never consent to accompany him to Australia And Elsie looks so pretty and so sad She needs a protector She would be grateful to him She cannot stand alone as you do and she knows she makes your position here much more difficult The truth is Elsie refused him and it is difficult for a man to make a second offer when he has such slight opportunities of seeing her even if he has not made a transfer of his affections I would make an opportunity I would write I would ask point blank to see her I would speak to you about it if I were in his place It is cowardly and Brandon Why, Francis, you're very unreasonable Elsie refused him as positively and uncompromisingly as possible on her way down to Derbyshire I do not think she would do so now but how is he to know that I would hint as much to him if I were you Jane, a word for you might secure your sister's happiness for life and you shrink from saying it Indeed I do, said Jane I think no good can come from interfering in such matters and I am particularly ill-adapted for such a delicate communication Besides, if one may judge by the last few weeks it is Miss Phillips who ought to receive the offer of marriage and not Elsie If her brother were to ask what Mr. Brandon's intentions are as he might very well do the result would be a marriage of two very ill-assorted people She cannot comprehend the real goodness and simplicity of his character and despises the man whom she is scarcely worthy to wait on She even looks down on her generous brother She has no love for her brother's children and no sympathy with anyone I am really very glad to observe with you that her influence with Mr. Brandon has decreased of late but he certainly has paid her a great deal of attention and she expects a proposal Her face has no charm to me, said Francis Taken feature by feature it is handsome enough but it wants play and variety and it has not the perfect harmony of Mrs. Phillips's That is a singularly beautiful index to a soul that appears to be nothing particular I have heard it said that we all have our ugly moments Have you ever seen such a time with Mrs. Phillips? There are times when she certainly does not look beautiful to me nor to Elsie either but I wanted to speak to you of your own affairs I read a letter from Tom Lowry this morning in which he says that he hears from one of his old school fellows that you have been asked to stand for the Switten Group of Burras and that everyone says you will easily be able to carry them over the Dukes man Ah! has he heard about it? I should have told you of it but the more pressing personal interest of the letter from Melbourne Mr. Phillips's strange agitation and this mysterious spiritual communication put it out of my head for the time and a word from you would put it aside forever Jane, like all women who are interested in public matters at all and they form a very small minority of her sex rather overestimated the importance of a parliamentary career She knew the turn of her cousin's mind his education as a man of the people his position as a man of property his earnest desire to do right his patient habits of business and his thorough method of researching and inquiry were all certain guarantees that he could not fail and she had the belief that his abilities and readiness and confidence would make him an eloquent and skillful debater It appeared to her to be an object of great importance that a perfectly honest and independent member should replace for the Burras in her native country the nominee of a great family who only voted with his party and had never done any credit either to the electors or to the nation She said truly when she spoke of her ambition finding its vent in dreams about him and her pupil Tom Lowry She certainly had influenced Francis Hogarth's character greatly during the turning point of his life the ideas she had nursed in her trials had been on his mind with force and earnestness and through him she could hope to give voice to a number of her crotchets and theories Where a woman writes as well as thinks she does not feel this dependence on the other sex so strongly for though at a disadvantage she can for herself utter her thoughts but Jane as my readers will have observed was not literary she was an intelligent well-informed observing woman but her field was action and not books In her present situation she had very little time for reading but from all that she saw and from all the conversation she could hear she found hints for action and subjects for thought To see Francis in the British Parliament was a worthy ambition and to give up such a probable career for an inglorious and obscure life with herself was not to be thought of His wistful looks and earnest tones were to be treasured up in her heart forever but her own love for him was not of that imperious and unreasonable nature that she could not live without him CHAPTER XII CHIEFLY POLITICAL Do you think that you can really get in? said Jane eagerly I know that my uncle said the liberal interest was much stronger in the burrows of late and you are really the fittest man they could have I was quite pleased to hear from Tom that you are so soon appreciated Of course he is enthusiastic on the subject I do not know if I'm appreciated or not The burrows are a little tired of a struggle between the conservative Duke and the Whig Earl always resulting in someone being put up on both sides to whom there were no strong objections and no strong recommendations a mere nobody in fact You are popular in the county, are you not? asked Jane No, not exactly I do not think I could possibly carry the county even if I could afford the contest for I am not considered a safe person for the landed interest I gained some a clot on the road trusteeship by opening a road which was a great public convenience but I lost more than I gained there by my allotments which are looked on as a dangerous precedent The cottages make me popular with those who have no vote and with the more enlightened class of farmers but the old school of tenants object to them and almost all the landlords fear that they may be asked to lay out money in the same way On the whole I am considered rather a dangerous man in the county but in the boroughs I am popular, I think I have the character of being a man of the people who has not lost sympathy with this class and I can afford to give them my time and services such as they are If you do go in, you want to do so independently, said Jane Yes, I do, and here I risk my election The Liberal Party want a certain vote which they think they could secure better by sending up a stranger from the reform club who knows little and cares less about the boroughs than by supporting a man who will look into political and national questions for himself and who will not be a mere partisan If they mistrust me and send someone to divide the Liberal interest I can only save the Swinton boroughs from the Dukes man by retiring But how foolish to divide the Liberal interest, said Jane My dear Jane, you forget that his party is dearer to a party man than anything else The question to be considered and I want to see how your nice conscience will guide you through the bewildering mazes of political morality is this Whether it would be right to pledge myself to the party in which case I am sure of my return or to remain independent and so make it very doubtful You cannot vote always with the Liberals, at least with the Liberals who form governments and oppositions, said Jane They are often in the wrong and particularly so in the bestowal of patronage which I suppose is a very important matter among party politicians The appointments which the Whigs have made of late years have often been most shamefully actuated by family or party reasons and not with a single eye to the public service Many times the Conservatives are really more liberal than the Whigs Sometimes the Whigs are more conservative than the Tories It is of the first importance that there should be many men such as you in Parliament who will watch over both parties and if this determined dualism is at work everywhere how are such men to get into the Legislature But surely you could carry the burras You can speak, can you not? I don't know, I never tried But I dare say I could beat Mr. Fortescu, the Duke's candidate He has never opened his mouth in the House but to give his vote and on the hustings he made no figure Try the independent course by all means You may be beaten, but then if you succeed you will be so much more useful It will probably cost me a thousand pounds It is shameful that the duty of serving one's country for nothing should be so dearly bought If you get in you must try to introduce some measure to reduce election expenses A difficult matter The objection of the Parliament when once assembled is to make it difficult and expensive to get in To keep the candidature within the limits of a privileged body is considered a great safeguard Not by me or by you, said Jane I want you to get in because you know the feelings and the wants of the people who have no votes better than ninety-nine out of a hundred who are members of Parliament Oh, Francis, I feel quite sure that if you exert yourself you can get in And what is a thousand pounds? You have it to spare I am doubtful, said Francis, shaking his head, if I can afford to go into Parliament Have you not, two thousand a year, and do not lawyers who can scarcely make a living go into Parliament? I am sure there is some perjury on the subject of proper qualification But as perhaps the latter is unnecessary, it is the less matter They go to increase their means or their practice or their influence And generally take the first opportunity of accepting something better than the children hundreds under government, said Francis There must be something very wrong somewhere if a country gentleman of your standing cannot afford to give his services to the House of Commons Have you brought the requisition that was sent to you, said Jane Yes, do you really want to see it? I have it in my pocket, and if I really felt an earnest on the subject I ought to communicate with Mr. Freeman, the Earl's political agent in London To know how he will favour a man who would support the general policy of government But who will hold himself free to vote against them whenever he sees them in the wrong My only means of securing the Earl's influence is by convincing him that he cannot carry the Bergs against Fortescue by such a man as he has to put up And as I am rather doubtful on that point, I can scarcely assert it confidently If he chooses to withhold his family interest he can make me fail But if it comes to the push, I would rather retire than let Fortescue get in Electioneering, then, is very nice and difficult work, said Jane Very difficult for the scrupulous, the sincere and the far-seeing Who are just the sort of people whom we want to see in Parliament Whom you want to see, Jane, but not whom the two great parties wish to see Then I should go to Mr. Freeman, do you think, with this requisition and a frank declaration of my principles and hear what he says on the matter If the Earl supports me, I may count on a majority of twenty, safe enough one And, if not, I shall spend the thousand pounds in a glorious defeat, writing the boldest and most independent of addresses, making the most uncompromising speeches from the hustings, if I can find voice No fear of your finding voice, Francis, said Jane warmly Regardless of the savor of rotten eggs, undaunted by the sneers at my birth and breeding, the tales about my father, the jeers at my mother, and only retiring at the last moment, when I have said all that I have got to say, but which I fear my audience were not much in a mood to hear My own idea is that I should succeed better in the calm, argumentative debates in Parliament than as a hustling's orator or a popular declaimer Yes, you will, and you certainly should try the second, that you may attain the first My uncle was asked to stand for these birds some ten years ago, but he was too crotchety and could not write an address that was at all likely to be acceptable to the electors, so he gave up the contest before it began Yet, you know, it would be well to have a few crotchety people in the House of Commons. The game of life, whether social or political, is not played by only two sets of black and red men, like Chess or Batgammon I have met a gentleman at Miss Thompson's pretty frequently, said Francis, who struck me as having the most remarkable qualifications for a Member of Parliament He has a habit of recurring to first principles, which is rather startling, but which always forces you to give reason for the faith that is in you, and which either confirms your opinion satisfactorily or changes or modifies it He has retired from business on about seven hundred pounds a year, which he has made in America, principally, has no family, no cares, and plenty of leisure, is the most upright of men, and knows more of the principles of jurisprudence and the details of commercial matters than anyone I ever knew But no constituency would choose him, and he cannot afford to throw away a thousand pounds for the privilege of having his say out He is one of the electors of Swinton, and particularly anxious that I should contest the boroughs His own vote he can answer for, but he boasts of no large following, though he is a man who ought to exert mental influence, he is too far ahead to be popular If I were to stand, and were to succeed, I will find him a most useful prompter, and with you to inspire enthusiasm for the public service, and this Mr. Sinclair to suggest principles and details, I ought to distinguish myself I am quite sure that you will, said Jane, so my advice is to lose no time in seeing Mr. Freeman. I cannot believe that people who call themselves liberal can act so illiberally as to endeavor to stifle independence. You will tell me a different tale tomorrow Francis did as Jane advised him, and as he himself thought he should do, and waited on Mr. Freeman, it happened to be a time of a lull in party politics There was no question strongly before the public mind on which wigs and tories were so equally pitted that one vote was of extreme importance There was no near prospect of a change of ministry, and the great wig houses had been much baited lately about their family selfishness and their party selfishness being quite as bad as that of the old Tory set So it appeared to Mr. Freeman at the present crisis to be a very wise and expedient thing to offer support to an independent man like Mr. Hogarth For it was very questionable if the Duke, who had been more liberal in his expenditure in the towns, would not carry it against a mere club man, and they had no better man to spare Mr. Hogarth, at least, was sure to ask nothing of the government. His support, when they got it, would cost nothing. His adverse vote would only be on outside questions as a rule It would look very well for the county election, which was to be a very tough affair between a younger son of the Duke and a younger brother of the Earl that Mr. Hogarth of Cross Hall should have the Earl's cordial support in the boroughs His vote was secure for the Honourable James and all those he could influence he hoped Francis said he could answer for his own, but his tenants must please themselves Oh yes certainly, but tenants generally find it for their advantage to vote with their landlord, said the agent I will give my tenants distinctly to understand that they must vote from conviction, and that that will please me That is my view of being a liberal, said Francis And if all the other county proprietors had the same view, the Honourable James would walk the course But we must oppose all the stratagems of war to an enemy who takes every advantage and strains to the utmost the influence of property and patronage I want to go in with perfectly clean hands, said Francis Bless you, so does everybody, said the parliamentary agent, but somehow there is a lot of queer work must be done to get fairly seated on the benches I not only wish it, but I mean to do it, said Mr. Hogarth Well, well, I hope you will be able to manage it. I must introduce you to the Earl I think he will say, as I say, that he will give you cordial support So that the sooner you get your address out the better, as soon in the field as possible, and don't fall asleep over it The other party are like weasels, they are not to be caught napping and will undermine what you fancy secure ground if you only give them a chance The result of Francis' interview with the Earl was as satisfactory as that with the agent Party, for once, was inclined to wave its hyperrogative and to allow a person to slip into Parliament without any pledge as to future action His manner prepossessed the Earl, he received an invitation to dinner to meet a few political friends and to talk over the canvas for the county Which was one on which all their strength was to be expended Harriet Phillips was all the more interested in Mr. Hogarth when he had been invited to dinner with the Peer of the Realm and stood a good chance of adding MP, though only for a Scotch group of boroughs to his name Even Mrs. Phillips felt a little excited at the idea of a British Member of Parliament and seemed to view both Jane and Elsie with more favour than she had done before While Mr. Phillips, anxious to do away with the impression of his first interview with Mr. Hogarth, was quietly and cordially hospitable and hoped that the Swinton boroughs would return him, that they might have the pleasure of his society in London for the coming sessions Francis spent a week or more in London and promised Ms. Phillips to pay a visit to her father in Derbyshire by and by Mr. Brandon was completely at a discount and is fairly out of the circle of Harriet's probable future life at Ashfield as if he had sailed for Australia End of Chapter 12 Volume 2 Chapter 13 of Mr. Hogarth's Will This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Mr. Hogarth's Will by Catherine Helen Spence Volume 2 Chapter 13 Goodbye While Jane and Francis were discussing the state of Brandon's affections, the objects of their solicitude was going as fast as the railway could take him to Ashfield where his widowed mother lived with his unmarried sister, a confirmed invalid and a widowed sister, Mrs. Holmes, the mother of those wonderful nephews and nieces whose ignorance on the subject of dirt pies had so much impressed Emily Phillips Brandon had always been very glad to go to see them and to stay a short time but the intolerable dullness of the place had always driven him back to London Australians generally prefer a large town as a residence and London most of all for though their relatives in small country towns or rural neighbourhoods fancy that it must be so much more lively with them than it is in the bush there is a great difference between dullness where there is plenty of work to be done and dullness where there is absolutely nothing Mrs. Brandon was a conscientious and to a certain extent rather a clever woman but she had many prejudices and little knowledge of the world Mary Brandon was the most amiable and the most pious and patient of sufferers who only got out in a bath-chair and received a great deal of care from her mother while Mrs. Holmes devoted herself to her children with a fidelity and an exclusiveness that made her influence elsewhere almost infinitesimal all of them loved Walter dearly and were very anxious that he should be married most disinterestedly for their circumstances were straightened and but for Walter's assistance which had been given wherever he could possibly afford to do so they would have found it difficult to make ends meet Mr. Holmes had been unfortunate in business and the widow had sacrificed part of her jointer and the invalid sister as much of her little fortune as was at her own disposal to assist him in his difficulties their generosity had the usual result of only delaying the crash for him and of finally impoverishing themselves one most promising brother had died at the close of a long expensive professional education which he had expected to turn to great account for the benefit of his sisters Walter himself had been sent out to Australia in his father's lifetime with a better capital than could have been given afterwards so that he always considered that he had got more than his share and that his assistance was nothing at all generous the young Holmes's were taught and guarded by their mother night and day she accompanied their walks she overlooked their games she read all their books before giving them to the children to read and cut out or erased anything that she thought incorrect in fact or questionable in tendency she allowed no intercourse with servants and almost as little with playfills of their own age and when Uncle Walter from Australia came first to disturb the even tenor of their way by lavish presence of sweet meats cakes and toys and by offers to take the whole family to every attainable amusement he was first reasoned with and then as he was not convinced he was put down his gifts returned and the children instructed to say that they would rather not have the treats he offered he certainly preferred the wild spirits and rebellious conduct of the little Philipses even in their worst days to the prim good behavior of his own nephews and nieces he had the pleasure of telling Mrs. Holmes on this occasion that the wild young Australians had been reduced to something like order by an admirable governess whom he had been the means of procuring for them that in spite of all the overindulgence she had suffered from Emily was proving a very tolerable scholar that she had good abilities and an excellent heart though she did climb on his knee for comforts and beg to be taken to Astley's Mrs. Holmes wondered at his procuring a governess for the children and asked a good deal about her with a view of ascertaining if her brother was fixed at last but he talked about her with a perfect nonchalance saying that she was a particular favorite of an old servant of his called Peggy Walker and that her account of Miss Melville's qualifications was perfectly satisfactory as the result had proved Mrs. Holmes was bewildered as to the curious social relations of Australian people but her mind was set at rest about Jane Melville but Fanny he said to a sister you know I have come to bid you good-bye in a week or ten days I cannot help it things look so badly just at present that unless I am on the spot I cannot see my way at all clearly I have little doubt that I will work things all right again the master's eye makes all go well there need be no difference in the little allowance I send to my mother and you that will be sent home regularly as before but I want to assist you otherwise if you will allow me to do it you have enough to do to bring up those six children of yours even with my little help I will take your boy Edgar with me as I am not going overland it will not be so expensive I will train him to be useful to me and make a man of him no no Walter I could not let him be away from under my own eye he is so young his education is not finished said Mrs. Holmes and never will be if you keep him always at your apron string you cannot do it Fanny you must turn him into the world someday and surely he will be better turned out under my guidance than under none at all why the latter sixteen and though he is uncommonly ignorant of the world he knows enough of books and that sort of thing to acquit himself very fairly in Australia I promise to do my very best for him and he can be of great service to me soon if he has only a head on his shoulders and though it is very hard to find out what your children are fit for I daresay the boy has average intelligence average intelligence exclaimed Mrs. Holmes his memory is admirable if you would only examine him in history or geography or Latin or scientific dialogues or chronology you would find that I do not know the tenth part of what he does no doubt said Brandon but that is not what will make him get on in the world you cannot afford to give him a profession I fear not I wish I could perhaps I might buy more economy the education of my children has cost me very little hitherto only the classics and mathematics from the curate I should like to bring Edgar up for the church but my dear Fanny if you were to give him a profession I must send him away from you if I take him I will do my utmost to get him on and I really will look after him and keep him out of mischief better than you can do at a public school or a university oh Walter you know what a state Victoria is in full of runaway convicts and all sorts of bad characters attracted there by the gold diggings I should not like Edgar to meet with such people at my sheep stations he will see little or nothing of these people I will keep him busy and by and by when he comes to man's estate I will give him a start and if you think I succeed with Edgar I will take Robert too when he is old enough I know Walter that you mean very kindly by me and mine but I do not care so much for my boys being rich or getting on as you call it I want them to be good I do not wish to throw them into the world till their principles are fixed and strong enough to withstand temptation Edgar is very young and you are not firm enough to have the guidance of him I can be firm enough on important things said Brandon but there are a number of little matters that a lad should learn to determine for himself let us ask Edgar if he would like to go don't say anything for or against for once let the boy exercise his choice and have the freedom of his own will you may reverse his decision afterwards if you see fit Mrs. Holmes ascended to this but with some fear and trembling Edgar was called in and his uncle kindly and fairly made him the offer the lad hesitated looked at his mother then at his uncle then at the floor what do you think I should do mama said he your mother wishes you to make your own choice said Brandon then I think I should like to go with you uncle Walter no no I cannot part with you my dear boy nonsense Fanny do not stand in the boys light said Brandon a little ruffled at being taken at his word and the lads decision reversed by his mother I don't want to go if you do not wish it mama said Edgar looking rather ashamed at his choice consult our mother and Mary on the matter Fanny I believe they will be more reasonable the advice of both grandmother and aunt was to the effect that Mrs. Holmes should take advantage of her brother's kindness and entrust Edgar to his care it was not without a great effort that she made up her mind to part with her son and she had many serious compunctions of conscious afterward but as his letters home were regular and very prettily expressed and as his uncle Walter generally added a few lines to say that the boy was doing remarkably well and growing strong and large she took comfort and hoped that all was for the best Brandon was rather surprised at the cool reception he got from Harriet Phillips on his return it was a relief to him to see that she could part with him without regret for he felt none at leaving her he had been putting on his Australian set of feelings and preparing to like the bush life very much as he had done in reality before he had Edgar with him when he came to bid the Philips's goodbye and Emily was much amused at the idea of this model lad going out to Melbourne in a large ship and seeing dear worry Wilta before she could do so she gave him messages to some of the people and desired him to inquire after the welfare of her pet opossum and her rose crested cockatoo and write her a full true and particular account of them all and of how he liked the colony which Edgar readily promised to do and so this Mr. Hogarth has left London Emily said Mr. Brandon oh he has gone home to see about getting into Parliament what stupid work it must be don't talk so absurdly said Aunt Harriet I see by the newspapers that he is likely to be put up and you think it's stupid work Emily do you you are a young lady of taste I think the same he is quite sure of success said Harriet Phillips who thought the question and remarks might have been addressed to her as the best informed person in the house Miss Melville will be pleased at her cousins going into the political line said he indeed we are all pleased I never saw anyone so fitted to shine in Parliament said Harriet he has promised when the election is over to visit papa their politics will suit I think and how is Miss Melville asked Brandon quite well she is always well but we have been very much troubled about servants of late I believe really that all the good servants have gone to Australia for we cannot hear of a housemaid or nurse to suit us and it puts everyone about I know it annoys me and Miss Melville who holds rather a singular combination of employments and I must say that she certainly discharges both of them extremely well is particularly engaged just now making up her housekeeping books and how is Miss Alice Melville she is not so invariably well as her sister is no she mopes more she has not half the spirit of Miss Melville but I believe she is quite well just now well said Brandon with a half sigh I have come to bid you all goodbye no one can tell when we may meet again oh no fear said Mrs. Phillips we will see you here again in a year or two Mr. Phillips is often grumbling about his affairs but I know it just ends in nothing by the by Emily whispered Brandon you promised if I was a good boy that you would give me a great treat you will never have another opportunity oh yes said Emily I recollect quite well come along with me and Brandon followed the child to the nursery Elsie was singing something to a tune that sounded like that of Chevy Chase a great favorite with Brandon in his childhood but she caught the sound of footsteps at the door and stopped abruptly this is our nursery said Emily Momma said it is far better than the old one at Riewilta but I do not like it half so well I have brought Mr. Brandon here Alice to hear your songs and your stories as I promised him the night you would not sing in the drawing room when he asked you go on Miss Alice I beg of you do not let me interrupt you indulge me for once that old air carries me back many years said Brandon oh no said Alice I could not venture on a stanza before you you cannot imagine what a dog girl I make to please the children it is not dog girl it is beautiful said little Harriet it is the best song of all and the newest than one that Alice has made about the fire when we were such tiny babies and how poor Momma was so weak and ill and Papa was away and the flames were all around and Peggy and Jim you recollect Jim black Jim Mr. Brandon and Mrs. Tuck Martha you know we're working so hard to save us and then when Mr. Brandon came up on his horse Cantab we told Alice his name was Cantab she knew all the rest of the story and rode so fast and got off in such a hurry and fetched water and quenched the fire oh Mr. Brandon it is a lovely song and all made up after our talk of old times the other night for I thought it was just the thing for a ballad and Alice will do anything I asked her you see that we will make a hero of you and we will sing this song in your praise when you are far away said Emily then I am not to be forgotten said Brandon speaking to Emily but looking very hard at Elsie I do not wish to be forgotten by anyone here I do not care for being remembered as a hero which I do not deserve to be but as a friend our friends here have been so few that we are not likely to forget any of them and with Emily beside us we stand a good chance of hearing your name frequently said Elsie and you made a song about me actually about me said Brandon looking as if he wished the five young Philipses out of the way oh Alice can make a song about anything said Constance she made one about my little kitten and such a nice one about my humming top how it goes whiz whiz said Hubert and Peggy told Alice and Miss Melville all about the fire and all about you long ago long before she saw any of us said Emily she made up a pretty story to amuse them just as Alice does for us when they are sad and dull only Peggy's story was all true and Alice's are mostly not Brandon's quick eye could observe the faintest additional flush pass over Elsie's already crimson cheek and guess that Peggy's revelations had been a little too true and minute what motive had she to conceal anything about him when she was relating her own experiences to divert the minds of the two poor girls in their troubles and perplexities was this the solution of his refusal in the railway carriage if it was he should try again he had been a fool an idiot to give up so readily at the first nace now it was too late his passage was taken out for himself and Edgar and he was to sail on the morrow but if things look decently well at Barragang on his return he must write though he was no great scribe shall I not call Jane said Elsie who felt embarrassed by his looks and manner and dreaded his saying anything particular before group of the sharpest children in the world she is extremely busy but if you have come to bid her goodbye she must see you for that you used to talk of going to Australia to Melbourne I mean with your sister and Peggy when she returns we hope to be able to do so said Elsie then I will see you again I must see you again don't call your sister yet don't here Brandon was interrupted by the entrance of Miss Harriet whose curiosity as to where Emily had taken her friend had led her to the nursery a place she seldom visited why Emily what a thing to bring Mr. Brandon into the nursery you are a dreadful girl I must tell Miss Melville of this I've only come to bid goodbye to some friends said Brandon they should have come to you in the drawing room only these children are so fond of their liberty that they prefer the nursery where they can torment Alice to their heart's content to anything like restraint in the drawing room what a litter the place is in I do wish we could get a nurse I must see Miss Melville to and bid her goodbye said Brandon she is in the housekeeper's room said Harriet as you have been introduced by Emily into the nursery perhaps you will let me take you there goodbye then Miss Alice said Brandon goodbye said she Brandon could not drop a word of his intention to Jane for Harriet Phillips was at his elbow when he made his adieu but somehow Elsie treasured up his parting looks and embarrassed expressions with as much fidelity as if he had made an open declaration of love many a woman's heart lives long on such slight food as this and the next day Brandon was on board and soon on the high seas on his way back to his sheep stations and his troubles end of volume 2 chapter 13 volume 2 chapter 14 of Mr. Hogarth's will this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Mr. Hogarth's will by Catherine Helen Spence volume 2 chapter 14 Francis Hogarth's canvas and election there can be little doubt that Jane Melville was a good deal influenced in her decision as to the position she ought to hold with Francis by the letter she had received from Tom Lowry on the morning of the day in which her cousin had betrayed to her more unmistakably than ever the state of his own heart it was something more for him to give up and as I've said before she rather overestimated both the importance of the public duty and the amount of success in it which Francis was likely to attain to it might seem to impartial observers rather utopian to hope and expect some regeneration of the political world of Great Britain from the return of an intelligent country gentlemen of independent and original principles for a few obscure Scottish boroughs to be one of an assembly of 658 legislators but it is from such utopianism felt not in one instance but in many that the atmosphere of politics both in Great Britain and in Australia can be cleared and purified when people whether as electors or candidates or as in the case of Jane Melville even those who are neither take an exaggerated view of the trouble expense and annoyance attending the discharge of public duty and form a low estimate of the good that each honest energetic individual can do to his country by using every means in his power to secure good government to promote public spirit and to raise the standard of political morality the country is on the decline it may grow rich it may grow in national prosperity but as a nation it wants the soul of national life and national freedom I prefer Jane Melville's rather unreasonable hopes to the pusillanimous fears the laissez faire policy of those who think they know the world far better and who believe the game of public life is not worth the cost of the candle that lights it up if she had been the only woman in the world or the only woman likely to suit Francis and to make him happy she would have felt very differently but surely he could have no difficulty in finding among the hundreds of thousands of marriageable women in Great Britain someone as likely she even thought more likely to satisfy his heart than herself it was only because circumstances had made him know her so well and because he had been so intimately connected with no one else that he believed he loved her he was a man whom any woman might easily learn to love and if she steadily held out to him that she was only his dear sister his faithful friend and that she could never be anything else he would air long form a tenderer tie but she hoped and wished that his lot might be cast with a good woman who would not grudge her the secondary place that she felt she could not give up she tried to convince herself that it could only be friendship really on his part but he had been so unused to affectionate friendships especially with one of the other sex that he was very likely to mistake his feelings the state of her own heart she did not like to look into very closely she knew that Francis was inexpressibly dear to her but the absolute absence of all jealousy made her doubt if it were really what is called love she could look forward without pain to another person becoming more to him than herself my readers will think that if it had been really love it would have forced itself upon her and burst through all the barriers that were laid across its course but love in a strong nature is very different from the same amount of love in a feeble nature if it had been her own property and career that had to be given up for his sake her love would have probably conquered all private ambition but the very high estimation in which she held her cousin fought against her instinctive wish to make him happy and if the irrevocable step were taken what security would she have that he might not regret it she dwelt in her own mind on the disparities between them which but for the peculiar circumstances in which they had been placed by her uncle's will must have prevented the formation even of the friendship now so close and so precious she was perhaps scarcely aware that such contrasts are more favorable to the growth and the continuance of love than to near resemblance in character and temperament she was so different in many ways from him he was literary she was practical he was poetical and artistic and by no means scientific she was destitute of taste and saw more romance in the wonders of science than in much of the poetry he admired so much he was aristocratic by temperament and only forced by her influence at the turning point of his life into her democratic views she could not rest from the overactivity of her nature while he liked repose, meditative, literary, and deletante the strong sense of duty which certainly was the guiding principle of his nature led him to exertion while Jane worked because she could not help it with Jane's temperament Francis would never have stayed for fifteen years clerk in the bank of Scotland while there were new countries to conquer or new fields to work in he found pleasure in beautiful things all disorder or disorganization was positively painful to him to begin again a life of comparative poverty burdened with the care of Elsie would be far more trying to him than to her for though she had been brought up in greater affluence she cared less for the elegances of life she loved him far too well to allow him to sacrifice a great deal more than she thought she was worth for such a doubtful good and she entered heart and soul into the prospects of this election as the thing which would decide Francis's fate and would give him still nobler work to do to keep him from regretting what it was better he should not obtain the spiritual communication on the subject of Francis's hopes to the effect that after a time he should succeed in the dearest object to his heart had made far less impression on her mind than on his she had not heard the unearthly taps she had not been startled by the appropriate answers she had not herself had her hand arrested at the letters which spelled out the unknown names her curiosity led her to attend to seance with Francis at the same place but everything on that occasion was a failure the spirits had not got rightly on rapport with her her dead relations were misnamed their messages were uncharacteristic and the spirit of Mr. Hogarth never could be summoned up again she therefore determined to dismiss the whole subject from her thoughts and advised Francis to do the same Mr. Dempster, however, was not willing to relinquish his half-made proselyte and certainly the less Jane was inclined to believe in these manifestations the more she became attached to the simple-minded pious visionary who rested so completely in them Jane's own life was particularly full of work and of worry at this time for as Miss Phillips might have taken part of the blame to herself if she had conceived it possible that she could do wrong for it was on her account that the housemaid had given warning she said that two missuses that was Mrs. Phillips and Miss Melville was enough for her and she could not submit to a third and she couldn't aber Miss Phillips's interference the nursemaid took umbrage at Elsie sitting so much in the nursery with the children though it was what Mr. Phillips liked and what the children delighted in and besides there was no other convenient place for her except her own bedroom which was too cold for comfort and too dark for fine work Elsie's position in the house was rather anomalous and certainly added to Jane's difficulties while Francis was busily engaged with his canvas Mr. and Mrs. Phillips took a short tour on the continent Harriet would have liked to accompany them and throughout hints to show that she expected an imitation but her sister-in-law thought they had done quite enough for her having her all the time in London and taking her about everywhere Jane was to be left in charge of the children and Elsie was to go with her mistress now that Mrs. Phillips had a ladies maid she could not possibly travel without one and as neither her husband nor herself knew any modern language but their own Elsie might be useful besides as an interpreter as she understood French very tolerably and had learned a good deal of Italian there might be advantage by and by from being able to advertise French and Italian acquired off the continent for perhaps the school might suit the Melville's better than going into business so Jane was very glad indeed that her sister who would profit most by it should take the trip rather than herself Miss Phillips returned to Derbyshire as she had no desire to stay even with such a congenial companion as Miss Melville with the drawback of a house full of children in the meantime Francis's canvas went on briskly Mr. Sinclair constituted himself his most active agent and certainly took more trouble and fatigue about it than any paid agent but he sometimes seemed to do his cause more harm than good by his constant recurrence to first principles which alarmed the jog trot old wigs and occasionally even the out and out radicals the five boroughs whose representation Mr. Hogarth was about to contest were grouped together because they lay in adjoining counties and not because they had any identity of interests in the good old times before the passing of the reform bill each borough sent one delegate to vote for the member the delegate was elected by the majority of the town council and as that body invariably elected their successors the representation of the citizens either municipal or parliamentary by such means was the most glorious fiction that has ever been devised by the wisdom of our ancestors the double election in this case had no good tendency the reform bill was on the whole a very good thing more because it was a great change in the representation which was carried out without endangering the constitution and was an earnest of still greater reforms being made in the future than because there is any very great improvement either in the character of the electors or their representatives but to Scotland it was a greater boon than to England for the semblance of representative institutions without the reality was a mockery to a free people and a very mischievous mockery in 1850 the boroughs had each their registered voters on the roll who each voted for his favorite candidate so that the votes of 500 men in one borough could not be neutralized by those of 80 men in another the stronghold of the conservative party lay in Swinton the Gentile and free borough the county town the liberals mustered very strong in Lady Kirk which had taken to the woollen manufactory within the last quarter of a century and had increased very much an extent in population so that it had far more voters paying ten pounds rent than any of the other towns in Old Biggan and Plainstains parties were so equal that no majority on either side could be reckoned on but the Whig majority in Lady Kirk was expected to overtop the Tory majority in the first two towns by as much as would secure Hogarth's return the honorable Mr. Fortescue was again to be put up for the Tory interest for though he had not distinguished himself last parliament he was a perfectly safe party man and connected by marriage not with the Duke but with a Tory Marquise next in consideration in the district who had great influence in the county returns Mr. Fortescue found he had a different man to fight with in Francis Hogarth from his opponent last election Mr. Turnbull so he felt he needed more backing and brought with him a Mr. Tautwell a great gun with his party who went his rounds both with and without him and acted as his mouthpiece one has confidence in an experienced man said this gentleman in a confidential way to the electors when he met with them singly or by twos and threes if the Earl had put up a man of greater parliamentary experience he might have had a chance to oust Mr. Fortescue but his picking up this quill driver who has spent his life behind a bank counter and offering him to the boroughs is really an insult to the constituency Mr. Fortescue is no order there is enough of us in the house to speak heaven knows there is only too much talking about nothing but Mr. Fortescue's vote was never given wrong never once did he forsake his colors don't look to the speeches look to the division list and there you will see that you can trust your member as for this Hogarth there is not a single thing that he has done that inspires confidence even with his own party he is far too radical even for the Earl I cannot imagine how that old fox has been so misled as to take him up probably for a consideration look at those allotments he has made over or given away to his laborers the most dangerous innovation that could possibly be made in such a country as this when the non property classes see such things they fancy they should all share in the spoil this is how socialism is to come in upon us these leveling and no doubt godless views prepare the way for such revolutions as we have seen with so much horror across the channel old cross hall was a skeptic of the worst kind and picked up his views of religion and politics in France and this new man could not rest till he too went to France to improve his mind in the same way these cottages he has built on his estate no doubt to increase his popularity and perhaps at Ladykirk they may go down but in Swinton and Freeborough people see things differently and even plain stains and old biggin like no such new fangled notions put into working people's heads the idea of compelling proprietors to build such palaces for their tenants laborers when the laborers themselves do not ask for them and do not care for them when they get them and I hear that Hogarth says they should all build houses just like his mere claptrap to win political influence for his new people break the windows and take no care of their fine new houses I am sure property is burdened heavily enough without his absurd crotchet for additional spoilation old cross hall was crazy enough to leave him a lot of money as well as the estate he certainly might have left the money to the poor girls he had brought up like his daughters and not have left them to starve and to be a burden on the country and young cross hall can see no better way of spending it than throwing it away for the chance of this seat but he has no chance the bank clerk's hordes will be somewhat diminished before all his expenses are paid we need take no trouble indeed Mr. Fortescue might walk the course but in spite of all this careless talk Mr. Fortescue and Mr. Tautwell too did take a great deal of trouble and employed every possible means to secure the certain majority of the thirty which they spoke of the greatest hope they had was in a split between the new man and the Earl's party and Mr. Fortescue's agents managed to make the most of every little point in dispute reports reached the Earl from different quarters, mostly reliable, that the return of Mr. Hogarth would not at all strengthen his party in the country he had but a small following and was comparatively little known the county voters were mostly tenant farmers who generally voted with their landlords the race of portioners or small proprietors was dying out in Chire as it is in Alda British Island and large proprietors were very much opposed to cross hall on account of his loose views as to the rights of property at Newton however which was a large manufacturing town of recent growth and not a royal borough but which was of very great importance in the county representation Francis Hogarth was extremely popular he was the real friend of the people the only man in the county who seemed to understand anything about the rights of labour the electors of Newtown felt agreed that they who were far more numerous than those of any of the five royal boroughs were thrown into the county representation where their votes did not count for one fourth of what they would do in the boroughs they felt personally interested in the return of cross hall as he was generally called and would not leave a stone unturned to secure it the non-electors of Newtown, a still more numerous party, regretted that they could do nothing to further his views except by going en masse to Lady Kirk on the day of the election and combining with the non-electors there so as to make as great a physical demonstration as possible for they considered that cross hall, if returned, would be their representative ready to fight their battles and to redress their grievances be careful Mr. Hogarth, be careful, said Mr. Prentice, his free borough agent say nothing that may awaken jealousy or mistrust among our own party you are much too frank in your assertion of your opinions correct enough, no doubt, but your people are not prepared for them and your majority is not so large that you can afford to lose a single vote it certainly is not large in your borough, said Francis a minority of twenty-three is the most favourable thing you can expect here I think twenty-four at Swinton there is a certain minority of fourteen which the least imprudence on your part would double old bigot and plain stains are ties at present so your majority at Lady Kirk should be large to cover up our deficit we have the hardest work to do with the least credit we should have double pay at these losing boroughs, said Prentice, laughing but for heaven's sake, Mr. Hogarth, keep your friends Sinclair quiet if he would only take a fever or something of that kind to keep him in bed till he is wanted to vote it would be a real service to the cause you must address the electors tonight at a public meeting and if possible keep Mr. Sinclair away we will get Mr. Hunter and Mr. Thurl's thing and a few others to speak in a quiet taking way and you need not say too much yourself and do not make it too distinct I have been agent here ever since the passing of the reform bill and I should know what electioneering for these boroughs is our people admire a fine speaking a few flowers of rhetoric a little oratory and enthusiasm are very telling but you need not pin yourself down to any definite course of action I am perhaps too much disposed to an indefinite course of action my principles I wish the electors to confide in and I will act up to them as the occasion may offer said Francis but if you are too broad and direct in your assertion of principles you may offend a third part of our sure votes nothing like a few good large words without much meaning for these boroughs by the by there is a deputation from Lady Curt come to wait on you before you speak at this meeting it is nearer for them to come here than to Swinton so it is more convenient in fact there were two deputations awaiting the liberal candidate one from the electors of Lady Curt headed by Sandy Pringle a man who had risen by the fabrication of woolen yarn from a weaver into a mill owner though not in a very large way and the other from the non-electors of Newtown who though they had no legitimate right to take up cross-hauls time wanted a few words with him before the election their spokesman was Jamie Howiston of the class called in the South Country in common parlance Creezy Weaver who had not risen and was not likely to rise both deputations appeared at once which to a man less honest and direct than Francis would have been inconvenient he might have requested one to retire while he gave audience to the other but he had so little the fear of Mr. Prentice before his eyes that he really wished every elector and every non-elector to hear his sentiments and opinions as fully and openly as possible and he received both of the deputations together he first heard what his own would-be constituents had to say and satisfied them as to his perfect independence of the Great Whig families and that he meant to keep his political judgment unbiased by party politics then what about the extension of the suffrage asked Sandy Pringle we want five pound voters at Lady Kirk that is a question likely to be kept in abeyance during the sitting of this Parliament said Francis if it is brought forward I must say that I cannot at present vote for an extension of the suffrage oh we thought you were an out and out liberal none of your finality wigs that took a bit of step in the right direction and then darest not venture further you might vote for the five pound vote if you are to be our man said Sandy Pringle we thought you would be for a bolder step than a five pound vote said Jamie Howiston you're said to be the poor man's friend is it fair that like a hose that make a country what it was should have no voice in the election we're for manhood suffrage in the ballot and we looked you to be our candidate for we thought you was our member if so be as we had our rights and had votes to give you would have had them it's fear it's fear of the Earl and the Freeberg gentry that keeps him from speaking out his mind said Sandy Pringle but his heart is all right he knows what's wanted and if he's no thorough to the Eliot's and the Grey's he can vote as he thinks fit I think we can depend on him my friends said Francis I wish to show no fear and no favour I would not say to you what I would not say to the Earl nor to the Earl what I would not be sorry or ashamed to let you hear I wish you to know as clearly as I can explain them my political principles so that I may raise no unfounded expectations and disappoint no one willfully or designedly I think with you that it is a great evil that the working man has no voice in the election of the members of the legislature I hope to live to see the day and I will labour to advance it when every man shall feel his influence in greater or less measure in that most important part of the duty of free people but have any of you ever seriously considered the effect which would follow the adoption in Great Britain at present of manhood suffrage or even of reducing the franchise to a five pound vote there would be far more economy in the public service said Sandy Pringle and far less jobry and corruption in government patronage said Jamie Haliston, the new town weaver they couldn't have swamped the constituencies by making fictitious votes, said Sandy they might bribe if the franchise was limited said Jamie Haliston but with manhood suffrage in the ballot a man might vote just as he liked and huzz working man, however rights and our feelings and our interests just as dear to huzz as pedigrees and acres to the aristocracy and we want no ten-hour bills what right have parliaments to dictate to huzz and keep huzz from selling what we have to sell our time and our labour we want to be let alone to mind our own business and not to be treated as if we was barns that didn't again what was for their guide now now, Mr. Hogarth when you get the allotments into your hands you showed that you can't what they were fit for and you man see the bigger constituency is the pure it is likely to be my friends, said Francis the effect of any great extension of the suffrage as things are at present would be to put the whole political power into the hands of the least educated classes of the community not the whole with a five-pound vote, said Sandy surely not the whole even with manhood suffrage, said Jamie we didn't want it all only our fair share but it is in the nature of things, said Francis that it must be so your five-pound voters, Mr. Pringle would out-vote the ten-pound voters enormously property-delectors, Mr. Howiston would out-vote even the five-pound voters and would in every constituency carry their candidate by an overwhelming majority this would not be good either for the country or for you but the rich have the house of lords where they are paramount, said Sandy Pringle a very feeble barrier that would be found against the abuses of democracy said Francis you know well that in all emergencies the lords must give way to the commons Dean Mann, they said, Jamie Howson and the only chance of justice for us that they mind but, Meister Hogarth you see that property and education and rank and of that hide it their way and for hundreds of years and it's time we should have our turn we aren't alike the French in the days of the old revolution we would respect property even if we out-our-mucle-power I think we would not make bad use of it it's hard to keep us out of our rights forever I think we might get a talk tomorrow then it's good for us but, said Sandy, sagaciously you acknowledge that things as they are are not fair, what would you do to mend them? you recollect a proposal of Lord John Russell some years ago to reconstruct the electoral districts by making them each return three members and allowing each elector to vote for only two so as to secure somewhat of the rights of minorities, said Francis oh, we misdote to that treacherous thing on Lord John's part, said Sandy it is hard enough for the liberals to get their dues with this restricted franchise and this arrangement with Mac the Tory is stronger than they are, no but it is not just that a majority of a third should be secured to their third share in the representation said Francis oh, you're going to first principles like your friend, Master Sinclair no doubt it's all right, but it wouldn't answer the third in a district might undo without their men and in some other they might have the best of it that would make a odds even it does so in a great measure at present though not so much as I could wish but every extension of the suffrage will tend to extinguish the minorities more and more you cannot say that in any electoral district you could name with manhood suffrage the working classes would not enormously outnumber the educated classes and we might wait for the reconstruction of the districts before there is any chance of justice I'm thinking we'll have to tarry long for our rights not so long if you steadily keep in view that this is the first step Lord John Russell's proposal was an approximation to a right principle which if it had been properly supported might have given the fairest opening for greater reforms if the conservatives had voted for a really conservative measure like this it would have been carried but as it was brought forward by a political opponent though now they taunt him with introducing it if the Whig party had seen the importance of it and had vigorously supported it it might have facilitated the extension of the suffrage a measure which none of you can desire more earnestly than I do I have conversed recently with some colonial gentlemen returned from Australia on the working of their manhood suffrage and the ballot and from one of them I got an idea which appears to be a still better one than Lord John Russell's it was embodied in a municipal bill for an infant city that of Adelaide drawn up by no less a person than Roland Hill then secretary for the colonization commissioners I believe it was a deplorably bad town council for Birmingham that led his acute mind to ponder how to secure the rights of minorities as it was the enormous expense of a correspondence he entered into on the subject of the coal tax grievance that led him to make the calculations and to devise the system by which letters could be carried all over the kingdom for the penny well, and what does Roland Hill say about the minorities that she care muckle for asked Sandy Pringle we have great respect for Roland Hill and what he has to say on such a subject should we'll deserve a hearing on any rate he had an arrangement by which a quorum of the citizens could plump for one member of a council giving additional force to their vote as they voted for one instead of eighteen their vote was worth eighteen their vote they proportionally increased the power of it oh we count that plumping I makes the vote more valuable says Sandy simply because your one vote it is an advantage to your member which is not given to any other but this system gives a much greater reward for concentrating your vote in Lord John's case the thing was incomplete for unless you have the power of giving your two votes to one man a minority of a third cannot get in a member is the cumulative power given by Roland Hill that secures the minorities will not be extinguished this subject will receive my careful attention if I am returned for the boroughs for I consider it by far the most important question of the day and if I can get the working classes to sympathize with me I hope for success in time also a revision of the partisanship laws so as to afford every facility for working people to cooperate with each other for it is only by that means to be done to improve their condition those rochdale pioneers are going on most satisfactorily with their cooperative store which they are now extending to other undertakings of a greater magnitude and I hope soon to see hundreds of similar associations in Great Britain and Ireland but we want more freedom for limited liability companies instead of so many difficulties being thrown in their way by over legislation I do not want to treat working people as children but to encourage them themselves I have had to work hard myself and I know what it is we will live into you said Sandy Pringle and even though in some points we may not see things exactly as you do and know a mere thing to have a name and be counted like the fortesques and turnbulls they are putting up little good little ill like a spile among porridge it was that chap trouble said Jamie Howiston I am sorry I have been so short of time in the district I hope in time to show that I deserve your confidence said Francis but what about the ballot asked Jamie Howiston I have not quite made up my mind about the ballot said Francis it is humiliating to confess to such ignorance but there is so much to be said on both sides that I am puzzled I should like public opinion to be so much improved that there would be no necessity for the ballot but perhaps without it we cannot regenerate public opinion I am quite open to conviction on either side as on many other political questions now I think you understand my principles I will vote for whatever I think right no matter from what side of the house or from what party it emanates if you can trust my intelligence and my integrity you will vote for me but I make no pledge and we will ask none said Pringle we will look into you but Master Hogarth said one of Jamie Howiston's colleagues we look to you to mind the interest of them that has no votes there is a large body as you can yes a very large body indeed when you include the women and children said Francis oh the women and children said the weaver with a disappointed air I was not thinking of them they're a wheel and ack the men takes care of them not always the best care in the world said Francis children need protective legislation to guard them from being overworked by parents and masters women are supposed to be free agents but they do not really get all the rights of free agents they should be empowered to protect themselves the law should support them in obtaining their just rights a wife ought not to be treated as a chattel her earnings should be protected if she wishes it and women too should have a wider field of labor the difficulties which are thrown in the way of the weaker sex in their attempts to earn a livelihood both by law and by society are very unworthy of the age we live in well Master Hogarth though I did not just see the necessity for bringing in women to compete with men you could do ill without them at our meals and maybe you're in the right you'll find us wigs at Lady Kirk United in that case you're safe to carry the day said Sandy Pringle Francis's return however ran more risk than either he or Sandy Pringle counted upon for the suggestion carefully circulated by Fortescue, Tautwell and the Tory agents and feebly denied even by Mr. Hogarth's own Swinton agent that he was a most unpopular man in the county and that it was a mistake on the Earl's part to support him very nearly brought down a member of the reform club to force him to retire after his canvas was made and his majority counted a small but safe this shabby proceeding was only averted by a firmness of the new town wigs who were indignant at such treatment of a man so independent and so able as Mr. Hogarth and they declared to the Earl through their agent that if he did not with his party support cross-haul for the boroughs they would set up Mr. Sinclair in the county and vote as one man for him so that Lord Frederick would have an overwhelming majority over the honourable James this threat of a certain defeat for the county restored the Earl to his original intention of giving a mild support to Hogarth who certainly would be a better man than Fortescue there was the usual amount of personal abuse leveled at the bankers clerk neither his father nor his mother was spared there were caricatures of him in mean lodgings and shabby Raymond doing things for himself which he recollected doing and which he was not ashamed of having done if Francis had been made a duke instead of merely trying to be a member of parliament he would never have been ashamed of his past life nor would he have been distressed or disturbed by the unexpected honour he would have taken it as a matter of course his speech from the hustings was clear manly and dignified and far surpassed that of Fortescue even with Tautwell's diligent prompting Mr. Sinclair's speech was received with cheers and hisses but in print it read exceedingly well then followed Mr. Tautwell's very rhetorical very sarcastic and as his own party said very telling speech but to Jane who read this report with the greatest interest it told nothing the result of the poll was a majority of three in favour of Francis Hogarth Esquire of Cross Hall who was accordingly declared duly elected and took his seat along with Lord Frederick who had got in for the county by a majority of twenty-seven much to the Earl's chagrin who had supported Cross Hall for nothing after all and the other members of the new parliament End of Volume 2 Chapter 14