Then came on the discussion about provisions in the army, the subject being mooted by one of Mr. Turnbull’s close allies.  The gentleman on the other side of the House who had moved for the Potted Peas Committee, was silent on the occasion, having felt that the result of that committee had not been exactly what he had expected.  The evidence respecting such of the Holstein potted peas as had been used in this country was not very favourable to them.  But, nevertheless, the rebound from that committee,—­the very fact that such a committee had been made to sit,—­gave ground for a hostile attack.  To attack is so easy, when a complete refutation barely suffices to save the Minister attacked,—­does not suffice to save him from future dim memories of something having been wrong,—­and brings down no disgrace whatsoever on the promoter of the false charge.  The promoter of the false charge simply expresses his gratification at finding that he had been misled by erroneous information.  It is not customary for him to express gratification at the fact, that out of all the mud which he has thrown, some will probably stick!  Phineas, when the time came, did get on his legs, and spoke perhaps two or three dozen words.  The doing so seemed to come to him quite naturally.  He had thought very little about it beforehand,—­having resolved not to think of it.  And indeed the occasion was one of no great importance.  The Speaker was not in the chair, and the House was thin, and he intended to make no speech,—­merely to say something which he had to say.  Till he had finished he hardly remembered that he was doing that, in attempting to do which he had before failed so egregiously.  It was not till he sat down that he began to ask himself whether the scene was swimming before his eyes as it had done on former occasions; as it had done even when he had so much as thought of making a speech.  Now he was astonished at the easiness of the thing, and as he left the House told himself that he had overcome the difficulty just when the victory could be of no avail to him.  Had he been more eager, more constant in his purpose, he might at any rate have shown the world that he was fit for the place which he had presumed to take before he was cast out of it.

On the next morning he received a letter from his father.  Dr. Finn had seen Lord Tulla, having been sent for to relieve his lordship in a fit of the gout, and had been informed by the Earl that he meant to fight the borough to the last man;—­had he said to the last shilling he would have spoken with perhaps more accuracy.  “You see, doctor, your son has had it for two years, as you may say for nothing, and I think he ought to give way.  He can’t expect that he’s to go on there as though it were his own.”  And then his lordship, upon whom this touch of the gout had come somewhat sharply, expressed himself with considerable animation.  The old doctor behaved with much spirit.  “I told the Earl,” he said, “that