assume a virtue if they had it not. They were habitually
indifferent to self-exaltation, and allowed themselves to be
thrust into this or that unfitting role, professing that the
Queen's Government and the good of the country were their only
considerations. Lord Thrift made way for Sir Orlando Drought at
the Admiralty, because it was felt on all sides that Sir Orlando
could not join the new composite party without a high place. And
the same grace was shown in regard to Lord Drummond, who remained
at the Colonies, keeping the office to which he had lately been
transferred under Mr Daubney. And Sir Gregory Grogram said not a
word, whatever he may have thought, when he was told that Mr
Daubney's Lord Chancellor, Lord Ramsden, was to keep the seals.
Sir Gregory did, no doubt, think very much about it, for legal
offices have a signification differing much from that which
attaches itself to places simply political. A Lord Chancellor
becomes a peer, and on going out of office enjoys a large
pension. When the woolsack has been reached there comes an end
of doubt, and a beginning of ease. Sir Gregory was not a young
man, and this was a terrible blow. But he bore it manfully,
saying not a word when the Duke spoke to him; but he became
convinced from that moment that no more inefficient lawyer ever
sat upon the English bench, or a more presumptuous politician in
the British Parliament, than Lord Ramsden.

The real struggle, however, lay in the appropriate distribution
of the Rattlers, the Robys, the Fitzgibbons, and the Macphersons
among the subordinate offices of State. Mr Macpherson and Mr
Roby, with a host of others who had belonged to Mr Daubney, were
prepared, as they declared from the first, to lend their
assistance to the Duke. They had consulted Mr Daubney on the