The death of the King was a great blow to what had now come to be generally styled the ‘Conservative Cause.’ It was quite unexpected; within a fortnight of his death, eminent4 persons still believed that ‘it was only the hay-fever.’ Had his Majesty5 lived until after the then impending6 registration7, the Whigs would have been again dismissed. Nor is there any doubt that, under these circumstances, the Conservative Cause would have secured for the new ministers a parliamentary majority. What would have been the consequences to the country, if the four years of Whig rule, from 1837 to 1841, had not occurred? It is easier to decide what would have been the consequences to the Whigs. Some of their great friends might have lacked blue ribbons and lord-lieutenancies, and some of their little friends comfortable places in the Customs and Excise8. They would have lost, undoubtedly9, the distribution of four years’ patronage10; we can hardly say the exercise of four years’ power; but they would have existed at this moment as the most powerful and popular Opposition11 that ever flourished in this country, if, indeed, the course of events had not long ere this carried them back to their old posts in a proud and intelligible12 position. The Reform Bill did not do more injury to the Tories, than the attempt to govern this country without a decided13 Parliamentary majority did the Whigs. The greatest of all evils is a weak government. They cannot carry good measures, they are forced to carry bad ones.
The death of the King was a great blow to the Conservative Cause; that is to say, it darkened the brow of Tadpole14, quailed15 the heart of Taper16, crushed all the rising hopes of those numerous statesmen who believe the country must be saved if they receive twelve hundred a-year. It is a peculiar17 class, that; 1,200l. per annum, paid quarterly, is their idea of political science and human nature. To receive 1,200l. per annum is government; to try to receive 1,200l. per annum is opposition; to wish to receive 1,200l. per annum is ambition. If a man wants to get into Parliament, and does not want to get 1,200l. per annum, they look upon him as daft; as a benighted18 being. They stare in each other’s face, and ask, ‘What can ***** want to get into Parliament for?’ They have no conception that public reputation is a motive19 power, and with many men the greatest. They have as much idea of fame or celebrity20, even of the masculine impulse of an honourable21 pride, as eunuchs of manly22 joys.
The twelve-hundred-a-yearers were in despair about the King’s death. Their loyal souls were sorely grieved that his gracious Majesty had not outlived the Registration. All their happy inventions about ‘hay-fever,’ circulated in confidence, and sent by post to chairmen of Conservative Associations, followed by a royal funeral! General election about to take place with the old registration; government boroughs24 against them, and the young Queen for a cry. What a cry! Youth, beauty, and a Queen! Taper grew pale at the thought. What could they possibly get up to countervail it? Even Church and Corn-laws together would not do; and then Church was sulky, for the Conservative Cause had just made it a present of a commission, and all that the country gentlemen knew of Conservatism was, that it would not repeal25 the Malt Tax, and had made them repeal their pledges. Yet a cry must be found. A dissolution without a cry, in the Taper philosophy, would be a world without a sun. A rise might be got by ‘Independence of the House of Lords;’ and Lord Lyndhurst’s summaries might be well circulated at one penny per hundred, large discount allowed to Conservative Associations, and endless credit. Tadpole, however, was never very fond of the House of Lords; besides, it was too limited. Tadpole wanted the young Queen brought in; the rogue26! At length, one morning, Taper came up to him with a slip of paper, and a smile of complacent27 austerity on his dull visage, ‘I think, Mr. Tadpole, that will do!’
Tadpole took the paper and read, ‘OUR YOUNG QUEEN, AND OUR OLD INSTITUTIONS.’
The eyes of Tadpole sparkled as if they had met a gnomic sentence of Periander or Thales; then turning to Taper, he said,
‘What do you think of “ancient,” instead of “old”?’
‘You cannot have “Our modern Queen and our ancient Institutions,”’ said Mr. Taper.
The dissolution was soon followed by an election for the borough23 of Cambridge. The Conservative Cause candidate was an old Etonian. That was a bond of sympathy which imparted zeal28 even to those who were a little sceptical of the essential virtues29 of Conservatism. Every undergraduate especially who remembered ‘the distant spires,’ became enthusiastic. Buckhurst took a very decided part. He cheered, he canvassed30, he brought men to the poll whom none could move; he influenced his friends and his companions. Even Coningsby caught the contagion31, and Vere, who had imbibed32 much of Coningsby’s political sentiment, prevailed on himself to be neutral. The Conservative Cause triumphed in the person of its Eton champion. The day the member was chaired, several men in Coningsby’s rooms were talking over their triumph.
‘By Jove!’ said the panting Buckhurst, throwing himself on the sofa, ‘it was well done; never was any thing better done. An immense triumph! The greatest triumph the Conservative Cause has had. And yet,’ he added, laughing, ‘if any fellow were to ask me what the Conservative Cause is, I am sure I should not know what to say.’
‘Why, it is the cause of our glorious institutions,’ said Coningsby. ‘A Crown robbed of its prerogatives33; a Church controlled by a commission; and an Aristocracy that does not lead.’
‘Under whose genial34 influence the order of the Peasantry, “a country’s pride,” has vanished from the face of the land,’ said Henry Sydney, ‘and is succeeded by a race of serfs, who are called labourers, and who burn ricks.’
‘Under which,’ continued Coningsby, ‘the Crown has become a cipher35; the Church a sect36; the Nobility drones; and the People drudges37.’
‘It is the great constitutional cause,’ said Lord Vere, ‘that refuses everything to opposition; yields everything to agitation38; conservative in Parliament, destructive out-of-doors; that has no objection to any change provided only it be effected by unauthorised means.’
‘The first public association of men,’ said Coningsby, ‘who have worked for an avowed39 end without enunciating a single principle.’
‘And who have established political infidelity throughout the land,’ said Lord Henry.
‘By Jove!’ said Buckhurst, ‘what infernal fools we have made ourselves this last week!’
‘Nay,’ said Coningsby, smiling, ‘it was our last schoolboy weakness. Floreat Etona, under all circumstances.’
‘I certainly, Coningsby,’ said Lord Vere, ‘shall not assume the Conservative Cause, instead of the cause for which Hampden died in the field, and Sydney on the scaffold.’
‘The cause for which Hampden died in the field and Sydney on the scaffold,’ said Coningsby, ‘was the cause of the Venetian Republic.’
‘How, how?’ cried Buckhurst.
‘I repeat it,’ said Coningsby. ‘The great object of the Whig leaders in England from the first movement under Hampden to the last most successful one in 1688, was to establish in England a high aristocratic republic on the model of the Venetian, then the study and admiration40 of all speculative41 politicians. Read Harrington; turn over Algernon Sydney; then you will see how the minds of the English leaders in the seventeenth century were saturated42 with the Venetian type. And they at length succeeded. William III. found them out. He told the Whig leaders, “I will not be a Doge.” He balanced parties; he baffled them as the Puritans baffled them fifty years before. The reign43 of Anne was a struggle between the Venetian and the English systems. Two great Whig nobles, Argyle and Somerset, worthy44 of seats in the Council of Ten, forced their Sovereign on her deathbed to change the ministry45. They accomplished46 their object. They brought in a new family on their own terms. George I. was a Doge; George II. was a Doge; they were what William III., a great man, would not be. George III. tried not to be a Doge, but it was impossible materially to resist the deeply-laid combination. He might get rid of the Whig magnificoes, but he could not rid himself of the Venetian constitution. And a Venetian constitution did govern England from the accession of the House of Hanover until 1832. Now I do not ask you, Vere, to relinquish47 the political tenets which in ordinary times would have been your inheritance. All I say is, the constitution introduced by your ancestors having been subverted48 by their descendants your contemporaries, beware of still holding Venetian principles of government when you have not a Venetian constitution to govern with. Do what I am doing, what Henry Sydney and Buckhurst are doing, what other men that I could mention are doing, hold yourself aloof49 from political parties which, from the necessity of things, have ceased to have distinctive50 principles, and are therefore practically only factions51; and wait and see, whether with patience, energy, honour, and Christian52 faith, and a desire to look to the national welfare and not to sectional and limited interests; whether, I say, we may not discover some great principles to guide us, to which we may adhere, and which then, if true, will ultimately guide and control others.’
‘I certainly,’ said Buckhurst, ‘when I get into the House of Commons, shall speak my mind without reference to any party whatever; and all I hope is, we may all come in at the same time, and then we may make a party of our own.’
‘I have always heard my father say,’ said Vere, ‘that there was nothing so difficult as to organise55 an independent party in the House of Commons.’
‘Ay! but that was in the Venetian period, Vere,’ said Henry Sydney, smiling.
‘I dare say,’ said Buckhurst, ‘the only way to make a party in the House of Commons is just the one that succeeds anywhere else. Men must associate together. When you are living in the same set, dining together every day, and quizzing the Dons, it is astonishing how well men agree. As for me, I never would enter into a conspiracy56, unless the conspirators57 were fellows who had been at Eton with me; and then there would be no treachery.’
‘Let us think of principles, and not of parties,’ said Coningsby.
‘For my part,’ said Buckhurst, ‘whenever a political system is breaking up, as in this country at present, I think the very best thing is to brush all the old Dons off the stage. They never take to the new road kindly58. They are always hampered59 by their exploded prejudices and obsolete60 traditions. I don’t think a single man, Vere, that sat in the Venetian Senate ought to be allowed to sit in the present English House of Commons.’
‘Well, no one does in our family except my uncle Philip,’ said Lord Henry; ‘and the moment I want it, he will resign; for he detests61 Parliament. It interferes62 so with his hunting.’
‘Well, we all have fair parliamentary prospects,’ said Buckhurst. ‘That is something. I wish we were in now.’
‘Heaven forbid!’ said Coningsby. ‘I tremble at the responsibility of a seat at any time. With my present unsettled and perplexed63 views, there is nothing from which I should recoil64 so much as the House of Commons.’
‘I quite agree with you,’ said Henry Sydney. ‘The best thing we can do is to keep as clear of political party as we possibly can. How many men waste the best part of their lives in painfully apologising for conscientious65 deviation66 from a parliamentary course which they adopted when they were boys, without thought, or prompted by some local connection, or interest, to secure a seat.’
It was the midnight following the morning when this conversation took place, that Coningsby, alone, and having just quitted a rather boisterous67 party of wassailers who had been celebrating at Buckhurst’s rooms the triumph of ‘Eton Statesmen,’ if not of Conservative principles, stopped in the precincts of that Royal College that reminded him of his schooldays, to cool his brow in the summer air, that even at that hour was soft, and to calm his mind in the contemplation of the still, the sacred, and the beauteous scene that surrounded him.
There rose that fane, the pride and boast of Cambridge, not unworthy to rank among the chief temples of Christendom. Its vast form was exaggerated in the uncertain hour; part shrouded68 in the deepest darkness, while a flood of silver light suffused69 its southern side, distinguished70 with revealing beam the huge ribs71 of its buttresses72, and bathed with mild lustre73 its airy pinnacles74.
‘Where is the spirit that raised these walls?’ thought Coningsby. ‘Is it indeed extinct? Is then this civilisation75, so much vaunted, inseparable from moderate feelings and little thoughts? If so, give me back barbarism! But I cannot believe it. Man that is made in the image of the Creator, is made for God-like deeds. Come what come may, I will cling to the heroic principle. It can alone satisfy my soul.’
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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auspices
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| n.资助，赞助 | |
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manifesto
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| n.宣言，声明 | |
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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registration
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| n.登记，注册，挂号 | |
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excise
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| n.(国产)货物税；vt.切除，删去 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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tadpole
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| n.[动]蝌蚪 | |
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quailed
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| 害怕，发抖，畏缩( quail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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taper
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| n.小蜡烛，尖细，渐弱；adj.尖细的；v.逐渐变小 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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benighted
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| adj.蒙昧的 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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celebrity
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| n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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borough
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| n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇 | |
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boroughs
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| （尤指大伦敦的）行政区( borough的名词复数 )； 议会中有代表的市镇 | |
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repeal
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| n.废止，撤消；v.废止，撤消 | |
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rogue
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| n.流氓；v.游手好闲 | |
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complacent
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| adj.自满的；自鸣得意的 | |
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zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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canvassed
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| v.（在政治方面）游说( canvass的过去式和过去分词 )；调查（如选举前选民的）意见；为讨论而提出（意见等）；详细检查 | |
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contagion
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| n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延 | |
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imbibed
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| v.吸收( imbibe的过去式和过去分词 )；喝；吸取；吸气 | |
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prerogatives
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| n.权利( prerogative的名词复数 )；特权；大主教法庭；总督委任组成的法庭 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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cipher
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| n.零；无影响力的人；密码 | |
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sect
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| n.派别，宗教，学派，派系 | |
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drudges
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| n.做苦工的人，劳碌的人( drudge的名词复数 ) | |
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agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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avowed
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| adj.公开声明的，承认的v.公开声明，承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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speculative
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| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
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saturated
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| a.饱和的，充满的 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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relinquish
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| v.放弃，撤回，让与，放手 | |
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subverted
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| v.颠覆，破坏（政治制度、宗教信仰等）( subvert的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某人）道德败坏或不忠 | |
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aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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factions
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| 组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 ) | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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sham
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| n./adj.假冒(的)，虚伪(的) | |
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radicalism
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| n. 急进主义, 根本的改革主义 | |
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organise
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| vt.组织，安排，筹办 | |
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conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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hampered
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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obsolete
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| adj.已废弃的，过时的 | |
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detests
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的第三人称单数 ) | |
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interferes
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| vi. 妨碍，冲突，干涉 | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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recoil
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| vi.退却，退缩，畏缩 | |
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conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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deviation
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| n.背离，偏离；偏差，偏向；离题 | |
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boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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shrouded
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| v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密 | |
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suffused
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| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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70
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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71
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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buttresses
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| n.扶壁，扶垛( buttress的名词复数 )v.用扶壁支撑，加固( buttress的第三人称单数 ) | |
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lustre
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| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
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pinnacles
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| 顶峰( pinnacle的名词复数 )； 顶点； 尖顶； 小尖塔 | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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