PHINEAS FINN IS RE-ELECTED.
The manner in which Phineas Finn was returned a second time for the
borough of Tankerville was memorable among the annals of English
elections. When the news reached the town that their member was to be
tried for murder no doubt every elector believed that he was guilty.
It is the natural assumption when the police and magistrates and
lawyers, who have been at work upon the matter carefully, have come
to that conclusion, and nothing but private knowledge or personal
affection will stand against such evidence. At Tankerville there was
nothing of either, and our hero's guilt was taken as a certainty.
There was an interest felt in the whole matter which was full of
excitement, and not altogether without delight to the Tankervillians.
Of course the borough, as a borough, would never again hold up its
head. There had never been known such an occurrence in the whole
history of this country as the hanging of a member of the House of
Commons. And this Member of Parliament was to be hung for murdering
another member, which, no doubt, added much to the importance of
the transaction. A large party in the borough declared that it
was a judgment. Tankerville had degraded itself among boroughs by
sending a Roman Catholic to Parliament, and had done so at the very
moment in which the Church of England was being brought into danger.
This was what had come upon the borough by not sticking to honest
Mr. Browborough! There was a moment,--just before the trial was
begun,--in which a large proportion of the electors was desirous
of proceeding to work at once, and of sending Mr. Browborough back
to his own place. It was thought that Phineas Finn should be made
to resign. And very wise men in Tankerville were much surprised
when they were told that a member of Parliament cannot resign his
seat,--that when once returned he is supposed to be, as long as that
Parliament shall endure, the absolute slave of his constituency
and his country, and that he can escape from his servitude only
by accepting some office under the Crown. Now it was held to be
impossible that a man charged with murder should be appointed even to
the stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds. The House, no doubt, could
expel a member, and would, as a matter of course, expel the member
for Tankerville,--but the House could hardly proceed to expulsion
before the member's guilt could have been absolutely established. So
it came to pass that there was no escape for the borough from any
part of the disgrace to which it had subjected itself by its unworthy
choice, and some Tankervillians of sensitive minds were of opinion
that no Tankervillian ever again ought to take part in politics.
Then, quite suddenly, there came into the borough the tidings that
Phineas Finn was an innocent man. This happened on the morning on
which the three telegrams from Prague reached London. The news
conveyed by the telegrams was at Tankerville almost as soon as in
the Court at the Old Bailey, and was believed as readily. The name
of the lady who had travelled all the way to Bohemia on behalf of
their handsome young member was on the tongue of every woman in
Tankerville, and a most delightful romance was composed. Some few
Protestant spirits regretted the now assured escape of their Roman
Catholic enemy, and would not even yet allow themselves to doubt that
the whole murder had been arranged by Divine Providence to bring down
the scarlet woman. It seemed to them to be so fitting a thing that
Providence should interfere directly to punish a town in which the
sins of the scarlet woman were not held to be abominable! But the
multitude were soon convinced that their member was innocent; and
as it was certain that he had been in great peril,--as it was known
that he was still in durance, and as it was necessary that the trial
should proceed, and that he should still stand at least for another
day in the dock,--he became more than ever a hero. Then came the
further delay, and at last the triumphant conclusion of the trial.
When acquitted, Phineas Finn was still member for Tankerville and
might have walked into the House on that very night. Instead of doing
so he had at once asked for the accustomed means of escape from his
servitude, and the seat for Tankerville was vacant. The most loving
friends of Mr. Browborough perceived at once that there was not
a chance for him. The borough was all but unanimous in resolving
that it would return no one as its member but the man who had been
unjustly accused of murder.
Mr. Ruddles was at once despatched to London with two other political
spirits,--so that there might be a real deputation,--and waited upon
Phineas two days after his release from prison. Ruddles was very
anxious to carry his member back with him, assuring Phineas of an
entry into the borough so triumphant that nothing like to it had ever
been known at Tankerville. But to all this Phineas was quite deaf.
At first he declined even to be put in nomination. "You can't escape
from it, Mr. Finn, you can't indeed," said Ruddles. "You don't at all
understand the enthusiasm of the borough; does he, Mr. Gadmire?"
"I never knew anything like it in my life before," said Gadmire.
"I believe Mr. Finn would poll two-thirds of the Church party
to-morrow," said Mr. Troddles, a leading dissenter in Tankerville,
who on this occasion was the third member of the deputation.
"I needn't sit for the borough unless I please, I suppose," pleaded
Phineas.
"Well, no;--at least I don't know," said Ruddles. "It would be
throwing us over a good deal, and I'm sure you are not the gentleman
to do that. And then, Mr. Finn, don't you see that though you have
been knocked about a little lately--"
"By George, he has,--most cruel," said Troddles.
"You'll miss the House if you give it up; you will, after a bit, Mr.
Finn. You've got to come round again, Mr. Finn,--if I may be so bold
as to say so, and you shouldn't put yourself out of the way of coming
round comfortably."
Phineas knew that there was wisdom in the words of Mr. Ruddles, and
consented. Though at this moment he was low in heart, disgusted with
the world, and sick of humanity,--though every joint in his body was
still sore from the rack on which he had been stretched, yet he knew
that it would not be so with him always. As others recovered so would
he, and it might be that he would live to "miss the House," should he
now refuse the offer made to him. He accepted the offer, but he did
so with a positive assurance that no consideration should at present
take him to Tankerville.
"We ain't going to charge you, not one penny," said Mr. Gadmire, with
enthusiasm.
"I feel all that I owe to the borough," said Phineas, "and to the
warm friends there who have espoused my cause; but I am not in a
condition at present, either of mind or body, to put myself forward
anywhere in public. I have suffered a great deal."
"Most cruel!" said Troddles.
"And am quite willing to confess that I am therefore unfit in my
present position to serve the borough."
"We can't admit that," said Gadmire, raising his left hand.
"We mean to have you," said Troddles.
"There isn't a doubt about your re-election, Mr. Finn," said Ruddles.
"I am very grateful, but I cannot be there. I must trust to one of
you gentlemen to explain to the electors that in my present condition
I am unable to visit the borough."
Messrs. Ruddles, Gadmire, and Troddles returned to
Tankerville,--disappointed no doubt at not bringing with them him
whose company would have made their feet glorious on the pavement of
their native town,--but still with a comparative sense of their own
importance in having seen the great sufferer whose woes forbade that
he should be beheld by common eyes. They never even expressed an idea
that he ought to have come, alluding even to their past convictions
as to the futility of hoping for such a blessing; but spoke of him as
a personage made almost sacred by the sufferings which he had been
made to endure. As to the election, that would be a matter of course.
He was proposed by Mr. Ruddles himself, and was absolutely seconded
by the rector of Tankerville,--the staunchest Tory in the place,
who on this occasion made a speech in which he declared that as an
Englishman, loving justice, he could not allow any political or even
any religious consideration to bias his conduct on this occasion. Mr.
Finn had thrown up his seat under the pressure of a false accusation,
and it was, the rector thought, for the honour of the borough that
the seat should be restored to him. So Phineas Finn was re-elected
for Tankerville without opposition and without expense; and for
six weeks after the ceremony parcels were showered upon him by
the ladies of the borough who sent him worked slippers, scarlet
hunting waistcoats, pocket handkerchiefs, with "P.F." beautifully
embroidered, and chains made of their own hair.
In this conjunction of affairs the editor of The People's Banner
found it somewhat difficult to trim his sails. It was a rule of life
with Mr. Quintus Slide to persecute an enemy. An enemy might at any
time become a friend, but while an enemy was an enemy he should be
trodden on and persecuted. Mr. Slide had striven more than once to
make a friend of Phineas Finn; but Phineas Finn had been conceited
and stiff-necked. Phineas had been to Mr. Slide an enemy of enemies,
and by all his ideas of manliness, by all the rules of his life, by
every principle which guided him, he was bound to persecute Phineas
to the last. During the trial and the few weeks before the trial he
had written various short articles with the view of declaring how
improper it would be should a newspaper express any opinion of the
guilt or innocence of a suspected person while under trial; and he
gave two or three severe blows to contemporaries for having sinned in
the matter; but in all these articles he had contrived to insinuate
that the member for Tankerville would, as a matter of course, be
dealt with by the hands of justice. He had been very careful to
recapitulate all circumstances which had induced Finn to hate the
murdered man, and had more than once related the story of the
firing of the pistol at Macpherson's Hotel. Then came the telegram
from Prague, and for a day or two Mr. Slide was stricken dumb. The
acquittal followed, and Quintus Slide had found himself compelled to
join in the general satisfaction evinced at the escape of an innocent
man. Then came the re-election for Tankerville, and Mr. Slide felt
that there was opportunity for another reaction. More than enough
had been done for Phineas Finn in allowing him to elude the gallows.
There could certainly be no need for crowning him with a political
chaplet because he had not murdered Mr. Bonteen. Among a few other
remarks which Mr. Slide threw together, the following appeared in the
columns of The People's Banner:--
We must confess that we hardly understand the principle on
which Mr. Finn has been re-elected for Tankerville with so
much enthusiasm,--free of expense,--and without that usual
compliment to the constituency which is implied by the
personal appearance of the candidate. We have more than
once expressed our belief that he was wrongly accused in
the matter of Mr. Bonteen's murder. Indeed our readers
will do us the justice to remember that, during the trial
and before the trial, we were always anxious to allay the
very strong feeling against Mr. Finn with which the public
mind was then imbued, not only by the facts of the murder,
but also by the previous conduct of that gentleman. But we
cannot understand why the late member should be thought
by the electors of Tankerville to be especially worthy of
their confidence because he did not murder Mr. Bonteen. He
himself, instigated, we hope, by a proper feeling, retired
from Parliament as soon as he was acquitted. His career
during the last twelve months has not enhanced his credit,
and cannot, we should think, have increased his comfort.
We ventured to suggest after that affair in Judd Street,
as to which the police were so benignly inefficient, that
it would not be for the welfare of the nation that a
gentleman should be employed in the public service whose
public life had been marked by the misfortune which had
attended Mr. Finn. Great efforts were made by various
ladies of the old Whig party to obtain official employment
for him, but they were made in vain. Mr. Gresham was too
wise, and our advice,--we will not say was followed,--but
was found to agree with the decision of the Prime
Minister. Mr. Finn was left out in the cold in spite
of his great friends,--and then came the murder of Mr.
Bonteen.
Can it be that Mr. Finn's fitness for Parliamentary duties
has been increased by Mr. Bonteen's unfortunate death, or
by the fact that Mr. Bonteen was murdered by other hands
than his own? We think not. The wretched husband, who,
in the madness of jealousy, fired a pistol at this young
man's head, has since died in his madness. Does that
incident in the drama give Mr. Finn any special claim
to consideration? We think not;--and we think also that
the electors of Tankerville would have done better had
they allowed Mr. Finn to return to that obscurity which
he seems to have desired. The electors of Tankerville,
however, are responsible only to their borough, and may
do as they please with the seat in Parliament which is
at their disposal. We may, however, protest against the
employment of an unfit person in the service of his
country,--simply because he has not committed a murder.
We say so much now because rumours of an arrangement have
reached our ears, which, should it come to pass,--would
force upon us the extremely disagreeable duty of referring
very forcibly to past circumstances, which may otherwise,
perhaps, be allowed to be forgotten.