_THE JUPITER_
Though Eleanor Harding rode off from John Bold on a high horse, it
must not be supposed that her heart was so elate as her demeanour.
In the first place, she had a natural repugnance to losing her
lover; and in the next, she was not quite so sure that she was in
the right as she pretended to be. Her father had told her, and that
now repeatedly, that Bold was doing nothing unjust or ungenerous;
and why then should she rebuke him, and throw him off, when she felt
herself so ill able to bear his loss?--but such is human nature, and
young-lady-nature especially.
As she walked off from him beneath the shady elms of the close, her
look, her tone, every motion and gesture of her body, belied her
heart; she would have given the world to have taken him by the hand,
to have reasoned with him, persuaded him, cajoled him, coaxed him out
of his project; to have overcome him with all her female artillery,
and to have redeemed her father at the cost of herself; but pride
would not let her do this, and she left him without a look of love or
a word of kindness.
Had Bold been judging of another lover and of another lady, he might
have understood all this as well as we do; but in matters of love men
do not see clearly in their own affairs. They say that faint heart
never won fair lady; and it is amazing to me how fair ladies are
won, so faint are often men's hearts! Were it not for the kindness
of their nature, that seeing the weakness of our courage they will
occasionally descend from their impregnable fortresses, and themselves
aid us in effecting their own defeat, too often would they escape
unconquered if not unscathed, and free of body if not of heart.
Poor Bold crept off quite crestfallen; he felt that as regarded
Eleanor Harding his fate was sealed, unless he could consent to give
up a task to which he had pledged himself, and which indeed it would
not be easy for him to give up. Lawyers were engaged, and the
question had to a certain extent been taken up by the public; besides,
how could a high-spirited girl like Eleanor Harding really learn to
love a man for neglecting a duty which he assumed! Could she allow
her affection to be purchased at the cost of his own self-respect?
As regarded the issue of his attempt at reformation in the hospital,
Bold had no reason hitherto to be discontented with his success.
All Barchester was by the ears about it. The bishop, the archdeacon,
the warden, the steward, and several other clerical allies, had daily
meetings, discussing their tactics, and preparing for the great
attack. Sir Abraham Haphazard had been consulted, but his opinion was
not yet received: copies of Hiram's will, copies of wardens' journals,
copies of leases, copies of accounts, copies of everything that could
be copied, and of some that could not, had been sent to him; and the
case was assuming most creditable dimensions. But, above all, it had
been mentioned in the daily _Jupiter_. That all-powerful organ of
the press in one of its leading thunderbolts launched at St Cross, had
thus remarked: "Another case, of smaller dimensions indeed, but of
similar import, is now likely to come under public notice. We are
informed that the warden or master of an old almshouse attached to
Barchester Cathedral is in receipt of twenty-five times the annual
income appointed for him by the will of the founder, while the sum
yearly expended on the absolute purposes of the charity has always
remained fixed. In other words, the legatees under the founder's
will have received no advantage from the increase in the value of the
property during the last four centuries, such increase having been
absorbed by the so-called warden. It is impossible to conceive a
case of greater injustice. It is no answer to say that some six or
nine or twelve old men receive as much of the goods of this world
as such old men require. On what foundation, moral or divine,
traditional or legal, is grounded the warden's claim to the large
income he receives for doing nothing? The contentment of these
almsmen, if content they be, can give him no title to this wealth!
Does he ever ask himself, when he stretches wide his clerical palm to
receive the pay of some dozen of the working clergy, for what service
he is so remunerated? Does his conscience ever entertain the question
of his right to such subsidies? Or is it possible that the subject
never so presents itself to his mind; that he has received for many
years, and intends, should God spare him, to receive for years to come
these fruits of the industrious piety of past ages, indifferent as to
any right on his own part, or of any injustice to others! We must
express an opinion that nowhere but in the Church of England, and only
there among its priests, could such a state of moral indifference be
found."
I must for the present leave my readers to imagine the state of Mr
Harding's mind after reading the above article. They say that forty
thousand copies of _The Jupiter_ are daily sold, and that each copy is
read by five persons at the least. Two hundred thousand readers then
would hear this accusation against him; two hundred thousand hearts
would swell with indignation at the griping injustice, the barefaced
robbery of the warden of Barchester Hospital! And how was he to
answer this? How was he to open his inmost heart to this multitude,
to these thousands, the educated, the polished, the picked men of his
own country; how show them that he was no robber, no avaricious, lazy
priest scrambling for gold, but a retiring, humble-spirited man, who
had innocently taken what had innocently been offered to him?
"Write to _The Jupiter_," suggested the bishop.
"Yes," said the archdeacon, more worldly wise than his father, "yes,
and be smothered with ridicule; tossed over and over again with
scorn; shaken this way and that, as a rat in the mouth of a practised
terrier. You will leave out some word or letter in your answer, and
the ignorance of the cathedral clergy will be harped upon; you will
make some small mistake, which will be a falsehood, or some admission,
which will be self-condemnation; you will find yourself to have been
vulgar, ill-tempered, irreverend, and illiterate, and the chances are
ten to one, but that being a clergyman, you will have been guilty of
blasphemy! A man may have the best of causes, the best of talents,
and the best of tempers; he may write as well as Addison, or as
strongly as Junius; but even with all this he cannot successfully
answer, when attacked by _The Jupiter_. In such matters it is
omnipotent. What the Czar is in Russia, or the mob in America, that
_The Jupiter_ is in England. Answer such an article! No, warden;
whatever you do, don't do that. We were to look for this sort of
thing, you know; but we need not draw down on our heads more of it
than is necessary."
The article in _The Jupiter_, while it so greatly harassed our poor
warden, was an immense triumph to some of the opposite party. Sorry
as Bold was to see Mr Harding attacked so personally, it still gave
him a feeling of elation to find his cause taken up by so powerful
an advocate: and as to Finney, the attorney, he was beside himself.
What! to be engaged in the same cause and on the same side with
_The Jupiter_; to have the views he had recommended seconded, and
furthered, and battled for by _The Jupiter_! Perhaps to have his own
name mentioned as that of the learned gentleman whose efforts had
been so successful on behalf of the poor of Barchester! He might be
examined before committees of the House of Commons, with heaven knows
how much a day for his personal expenses;--he might be engaged for
years on such a suit! There was no end to the glorious golden dreams
which this leader in _The Jupiter_ produced in the soaring mind of
Finney.
And the old bedesmen, they also heard of this article, and had a
glimmering, indistinct idea of the marvellous advocate which had now
taken up their cause. Abel Handy limped hither and thither through
the rooms, repeating all that he understood to have been printed,
with some additions of his own which he thought should have been
added. He told them how _The Jupiter_ had declared that their warden
was no better than a robber, and that what _The Jupiter_ said was
acknowledged by the world to be true. How _The Jupiter_ had affirmed
that each one of them--"each one of us, Jonathan Crumple, think of
that!"--had a clear right to a hundred a year; and that if _The
Jupiter_ had said so, it was better than a decision of the Lord
Chancellor: and then he carried about the paper, supplied by Mr
Finney, which, though none of them could read it, still afforded in
its very touch and aspect positive corroboration of what was told
them; and Jonathan Crumple pondered deeply over his returning wealth;
and Job Skulpit saw how right he had been in signing the petition, and
said so many scores of times; and Spriggs leered fearfully with his
one eye; and Moody, as he more nearly approached the coming golden
age, hated more deeply than ever those who still kept possession of
what he so coveted. Even Billy Gazy and poor bed-ridden Bell became
active and uneasy, and the great Bunce stood apart with lowering brow,
with deep grief seated in his heart, for he perceived that evil days
were coming.
It had been decided, the archdeacon advising, that no remonstrance,
explanation, or defence should be addressed from the Barchester
conclave to the editor of _The Jupiter_; but hitherto that was the
only decision to which they had come.
Sir Abraham Haphazard was deeply engaged in preparing a bill for the
mortification of papists, to be called the "Convent Custody Bill,"
the purport of which was to enable any Protestant clergyman over
fifty years of age to search any nun whom he suspected of being in
possession of treasonable papers or Jesuitical symbols; and as there
were to be a hundred and thirty-seven clauses in the bill, each clause
containing a separate thorn for the side of the papist, and as it
was known the bill would be fought inch by inch, by fifty maddened
Irishmen, the due construction and adequate dovetailing of it did
consume much of Sir Abraham's time. The bill had all its desired
effect. Of course it never passed into law; but it so completely
divided the ranks of the Irish members, who had bound themselves
together to force on the ministry a bill for compelling all men to
drink Irish whiskey, and all women to wear Irish poplins, that for
the remainder of the session the Great Poplin and Whiskey League was
utterly harmless.
Thus it happened that Sir Abraham's opinion was not at once
forthcoming, and the uncertainty, the expectation, and suffering of
the folk of Barchester was maintained at a high pitch.