You must receive them, as I am going to
Windsor. What are they?"
"There are only two, sir, of moment. The rest I could easily
manage."
"And these two?"
"In the first place, there is our friend Colonel Bosky, the
members for the county of Calfshire, and a deputation of
tenant farmers."
"Pah!"
"These must be attended to. The members have made a strong
representation to me that they really cannot any longer vote
with government unless the Treasury assists them in satisfying
their constituents."
"And what do they want?"
"Statement of grievances; high taxes and low prices; mild
expostulations and gentle hints that they have been thrown
over by their friends; Polish corn, Holstein cattle, and
British income tax."
"Well you know what to say," said the gentleman in Downing
Street. "Tell them generally that they are quite mistaken;
prove to them particularly that my only object has been to
render protection more protective, by making it practical and
divesting it of the surplusage of odium; that no foreign corn
can come in at fifty-five shillings; that there are not enough
cattle in all Holstein to supply the parish of Pancras daily
with beef-steaks; and that as for the income tax, they will be
amply compensated for it by their diminished cost of living
through the agency of that very tariff of which they are so
superficially complaining.
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