Never
within the memory of living politicians had political rancour been so
sharp, and the feeling of injury so keen, both on the one side and on
the other. The taunts thrown at the Conservatives, in reference to
the Church, had been almost unendurable,--and the more so because the
strong expressions of feeling from their own party throughout the
country were against them. Their own convictions also were against
them. And there had for a while been almost a determination through
the party to deny their leader and disclaim the bill. But a feeling
of duty to the party had prevailed, and this had not been done. It
had not been done; but the not doing of it was a sore burden on the
half-broken shoulders of many a man who sat gloomily on the benches
behind Mr. Daubeny. Men goaded as they were, by their opponents,
by their natural friends, and by their own consciences, could not
bear it in silence, and very bitter things were said in return. Mr.
Gresham was accused of a degrading lust for power. No other feeling
could prompt him to oppose with a factious acrimony never before
exhibited in that House,--so said some wretched Conservative with
broken back and broken heart,--a measure which he himself would only
be too willing to carry were he allowed the privilege of passing over
to the other side of the House for the purpose.
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