A highly-wrought moral strain would
he knew well create either disgust or ridicule. "If there is any
beastliness I 'ate it is 'igh-faluting," he has been heard to say to
his underlings. The sentiment was the same as that conveyed in the
"Point de zele" of Talleyrand. "Let's 'ave no d----d nonsense," he
said on another occasion, when striking out from a leading article
a passage in praise of the patriotism of a certain public man. "Mr.
Gresham is as good as another man, no doubt; what we want to know is
whether he's along with us." Mr. Gresham was not along with Mr. Slide
at present, and Mr. Slide found it very easy to speak ill of Mr.
Gresham.
Mr. Slide one Sunday morning called at the house of Mr. Bunce in
Great Marlborough Street, and asked for Phineas Finn. Mr. Slide and
Mr. Bunce had an old acquaintance with each other, and the editor was
not ashamed to exchange a few friendly words with the law-scrivener
before he was shown up to the member of Parliament. Mr. Bunce was an
outspoken, eager, and honest politician,--with very little accurate
knowledge of the political conditions by which he was surrounded,
but with a strong belief in the merits of his own class.
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