'
'That's all very well,' said Silverbridge, 'but where should we
have been if there had been no Liberals? Robespierre and his pals
cut off a lot of heads, but Louis XIV and Louis XV locked up more
in prison.' And so he had the last word in the argument.
The whole of the next morning was spent in canvassing, and the
whole of the afternoon. In the evening there was a great meeting
at the Polwenning Assembly Room, which at the present moment was
in the hands of the Conservative Party. Here Frank Tregear made an
oration, in which he declared his political convictions. The
whole speech was said at the time to be very good; but the portion
of it which was apparently esteemed the most, had direct reference
to Mr Carbottle. Who was Mr Carbottle? Why had he come to
Polpenno? Who had sent for him? Why Mr Carbottle rather than
anybody else? Did not the people of Polpenno think that it might
be as well to send Mr Carbottle from the place from whence he had
come? These questions, which seemed to Silverbridge to be as easy
as they were attractive, almost made him desirous of making a
speech himself.
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