--Only conceive how august a little petulance--and what
a graceful variety snarling and snapping would introduce!--True,
they are rather new in that connexion.--Believe me, sir, there
is nothing for which I have so ardently longed as to meet them
there.--I should die contented.--And you, sir,--if you would
introduce them--Eh?
KASTRIL.
Doctor, you shall be satisfied--I'll be in parliament in a
month--I'll be prime minister--LORD HIGH TREASURER of
ENGLAND--or, CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER!
SUBTLE.
Oh, by all means CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER! You are somewhat
young indeed--but that's no objection.--Damn me, if the office
can ever be so respectably filled as by an angry boy.
KASTRIL.
True, true.--But, doctor, we forget your instructions all this
time.--Let me see--Ay--first was the QUARREL PREVENTIVE.
SUBTLE.
Well thought of!--Why, sir, in your new office you will be
liable to all sorts of attacks--Ministers always are, and an
angry boy cannot hope to escape.--Now nothing, you know, is so
much to the purpose as to have the first blow--Blunders are very
natural.--Your friends tell one story in the upper house, and
you another in the lower--You shall give up a territory to the
enemy that you ought to have kept, and when charged with it,
shall unluckily drop that you and your colleagues were ignorant
of the geography of the country--You foresee an attack--you
immediately open--Plans so extensively beneficial--accounts so
perfectly consistent--measures so judicious and accurate--no man
can question--no man can object to--but a rascal and a
knave.
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