It so happened that the day fixed for the
election in this division of the county was quite at the close of
this period of political excitement. When Mr. Daubeny addressed his
friends in East Barsetshire the returns throughout the kingdom were
nearly complete. No attention had been paid to this fact during the
elections, but it was afterwards asserted that the arrangement had
been made with a political purpose, and with a purpose which was
politically dishonest. Mr. Daubeny, so said the angry Liberals,
had not chosen to address his constituents till his speech at the
hustings could have no effect on other counties. Otherwise,--so said
the Liberals,--the whole Conservative party would have been called
upon to disavow at the hustings the conclusion to which Mr. Daubeny
hinted in East Barsetshire that he had arrived. The East Barsetshire
men themselves,--so said the Liberals,--had been too crass to catch
the meaning hidden under his ambiguous words; but those words, when
read by the light of astute criticism, were found to contain an
opinion that Church and State should be dissevered.
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