Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 427, May, 1851Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 427, May, 1851
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
I suppose there is no chance of an immediate vacancy in the Dreepdaily
Burghs? Well, then, you must even make up your mind to come south and
attack a Saxon garrison. I have one or two places in my eye, either
of which you will be sure to carry in a canter, provided some fiery
fanatical fellow does not start up to oppose you. They are cotton
boroughs under the complete control of the millocracy; and I think you
are certain to step in, provided matters are properly managed, at the
expense of a small judicious outlay. And here, I know, you will begin
to object--You cannot afford the expense, &c. My dear friend, you
_must_ afford it, if you wish to cut any figure in life, or to make
yourself accounted worthy of purchase. No parsimony is so ill-judged
as that which boggles at the outlay of an election. No matter how many
firkins of beer may be consumed in the course of the canvass--how many
hundred dozen _goes_ of brandy-and-water may lubricate the throats
of the thirsty potwallopers and freemen who espouse your cause, and
bear your colours--the true principle is to consider these charges as
a debt which a grateful Ministry must refund on the first convenient
opportunity, with such rate of interest as you are fairly entitled to
expect, taking into account the risk which you have run, and the labour
which you have performed on their behalf. Altogether independently of
this, a seat in Parliament is well worth the expense. It gives you a
position in society which is otherwise difficult to attain; and any
man who can talk as you do, glibly and off-hand, is certain, before a
session is over, to push himself forward into notoriety.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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