Who could have thought it? The whig ministers it
seems had resigned, but somehow or other had not entirely and
completely gone out. What a constitutional dilemma? The
Houses must evidently meet, address the throne, and impeach
its obstinate counsellors. Clearly the right course, and
party feeling ran so high, that it was not impossible that
something might be done. At any rate, it was a capital
opportunity for the House of Lords to pluck up a little
courage and take what is called, in high political jargon, the
initiative. Lord Marney at the suggestion of Mr Tadpole was
quite ready to do this; and so was the Duke of Fitz-Aquitaine,
and almost the Earl de Mowbray.
But then when all seemed ripe and ready, and there appeared a
probability of the "Independence of the House of Lords" being
again the favourite toast of conservative dinners, the oddest
rumour in the world got about, which threw such a ridicule on
these great constitutional movements in petto, that even with
the Buckhounds in the distance and Tadpole at his elbow, Lord
Marney hesitated. It seemed, though of course no one could
for a moment credit it, that these wrong-headed, rebellious
ministers who would not go out, wore--petticoats!
And the great Jamaica debate that had been cooked so long, and
the anxiously expected, yet almost despaired of, defection of
the independent radical section, and the full-dressed visit to
the palace that had gladdened the heart of Tadpole--were they
all to end in this? Was Conservatism, that mighty mystery of
the nineteenth century--was it after all to be brained by a
fan!
Since the farce of the "Invincibles" nothing had ever been so
ludicrously successful.
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