'I suppose you like that particular office,'
Silverbridge said to him.
'Well; yes;--not best of all, you know,' and he smiled as he made
this admission.
'You mean Prime Minister.'
'No, indeed I don't. I am inclined to think that the Premier
should always sit in your House. No, Silverbridge, if I could have
my way,--which is of course impossible, for I cannot put off my
honours,--I would return to my old place. I would return to the
Exchequer where the work is hard and certain, where a man can do,
or at any rate attempt to do, some special thing. A man there if
he stick to that and does not travel beyond it, need not be
popular, need not be a partisan, need not be eloquent, need not be
a courtier. He should understand his profession, as should a
lawyer or doctor. If he does that thoroughly he can serve his
country without recourse to that parliamentary strategy for which
I know that I am unfit.'
'You can't do that in the House of Lords, sir.'
'No; no. I wish the title could have passed over my head,
Silverbridge, and gone to you at once.
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