‘So we did, so long as we saw O’Connell and the lawyers working the game of that grievance for their own advantage, and teaching the English Government how to rule Ireland by a system of concession to _them_ and to _their_ friends. Now, however, we begin to perceive that to assault that heavy bastion of Saxon intolerance, we must have spies in the enemy’s fortress, and for this we send in so many members to the Whig party. There are scores of men who will aid us by their vote who would not risk a bone in our cause. Theirs is a sort of subacute patriotism; but it has its use. It smashes an Established Church, breaks down Protestant ascendency, destroys the prestige of landed property, and will in time abrogate entail and primogeniture, and many another fine thing; and in this way it clears the ground for our operations, just as soldiers fell trees and level houses lest they interfere with the range of heavy artillery.’ ‘So that the place you would assign me is that very honourable one you have just called a “spy in the camp”?’ ‘By a figure I said that, Mr. Kearney; but you know well enough what I meant was, that there’s many a man will help us on the Treasury benches that would not turn out on Tallaght; and we want both. I won’t say,’ added he, after a pause, ‘I’d not rather see you a leader in our ranks than a Parliament man. I was bred a doctor, Mr. Kearney, and I must take an illustration from my own art. To make a man susceptible of certain remedies, you are often obliged to reduce his strength and weaken his constitution. So it is here. To bring Ireland into a condition to be bettered by Repeal, you must crush the Church and smash the bitter Protestants. The Whigs will do these for us, but we must help them. Do you understand me now?’ ‘I believe I do. In the case you speak of, then, the Government will support my election.’ ‘Against a Tory, yes; but not against a pure Whig--a thorough-going supporter, who would bargain for nothing for his country, only something for his own relations.’ ‘If your project has an immense fascination for me at one moment, and excites my ambition beyond all bounds, the moment I turn my mind to the cost, and remember my own poverty, I see nothing but hopelessness.’ ‘That’s not my view of it, nor when you listen to me patiently, will it, I believe, be yours. Can we have another talk over this in the evening?’ ‘To be sure! we’ll dine here together at six.’ ‘Oh, never mind me, think of yourself, Mr. Kearney, and your own engagements. As to the matter of dining, a crust of bread and a couple of apples are fully as much as I want or care for.’ ‘We’ll dine together to-day at six,’ said Dick, ‘and bear in mind, I am more interested in this than you are.’ CHAPTER XXVII A CRAFTY COUNSELLOR