‘Why not make it better?’
‘Ay, that’s the question. I can see no other road to improvement but to go on talking. Liberal ideas spread and light does come, however slowly. Sometimes I almost feel inclined to ask for a drastic reform.’
‘What is that?’
‘To get the borough disfranchised. It would be very easy to get up a petition for bribery and corruption; it would be easier still to prove it.’
‘And then?’
‘The result would be that I should lose my congregation, and be the most unpopular man in the town.’
‘Why not “dare to be a Daniel”?’
‘Because I am poor and have a large family to keep; because I love peace and quietness; because I am a little older than you, know a little more of country life, and feel inclined to make the best of it what little time I have to live. If we are bound to run amuck at all we disapprove of, life, I fear, would be a burden too heavy to be borne. I may be slow, but, at any rate, I am sure.’
‘So you are, old fellow. You were talking just the same way when I came here to preach—it seems to me ages ago—and a good deal has happened since then.’
‘Just what I was going to say,’ said the clerical brother. ‘Politically we have made great progress. We are on the eve of extension of the franchise and vote by ballot, and whoever we return at Sloville—they are safe. I could have got up a petition against bribery and corruption in the place. I ought, perhaps, you say, to have done so. Well, I should have had to spend hundreds of pounds, which I have not got; and if I had succeeded and got the borough disfranchised, I should never have been able to show my face in the town again.’