Page:Paul Clifford Vol 3.djvu/130

122 ,—your patriot mellowing into your placeman? And mark me, Mr. Nabbem! is not the very language of both as similar as the deeds? What is the phrase either of us loves to employ? 'To deliver,'—what? 'The Public'—And do we not both invariably deliver it of the same thing?—viz.; its purse! Do we want an excuse for sharing the gold of our neighbours, or abusing them, if they resist?—is not our mutual—our pithiest plea—'Distress!' True, your patriot calls it 'distress of the country,' but does he ever a whit more than we do, mean any distress but his own? When we are brought low, and our coats are shabby, do we not both shake our heads and talk of 'reform?' And when—oh! when we are up in the world, do we not both kick 'reform' to the Devil? How often your Parliament man 'vacates his seat,' only for the purpose of resuming it with a weightier purse! How often, dear Ned, have our seats been vacated for the same end! Sometimes, indeed, he really finishes his career by accepting the hundreds,—it is by 'accepting the hundreds,' that ours may be finished too!—(Ned drew a long sigh!)—Note