Page:History of the Anti corn law league.pdf/33

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
A BETTER MAN WANTED.
17

well founded, for never, in all our experience of public appearances, did we see so miserable an exhibition;—we do not mean with regard to talent, for, where the intention is right, allowances are always made for the absence of ability;—we do not mean with regard to manners and temper, because the best and ablest of men may be uncouth and want equanimity; but we mean in the absence of every quality which men would desire in a legislator, and especially in the absence of honesty, the possession of which, without one particle of talent, would have saved him from an extent of evasion and shuffle degrading to any in any station, but in one who, if wealth can make the gentleman, ought to be one, was not only degrading but disgusting. Let any one read how he tried to avoid answering the searching question, (to Mr. Loyd more searching than to the auditors it seemed) if he would have supported the second reading of the Reform Bill, and he will not wonder that the persons assembled, who heard him speak throughout with marked attention, and occasionally with applause, should have expressed their feelings with groans and hootings, and that his questioner, who began his examination respectfully, should, as he went on, have changed his tone to that of an indignant counsel who has got a fencing and shuffling witness in the witness box. We learn that a number of those who purposed to support Mr. Loyd while they believed that he was a reformer, are now heartily ashamed of him, and are anxiously looking about for some straightforward man to be put in nomination in his stead."