566 LIFE OF COBDEN. [omAP:

1857. and Bright at the Reform Club during the war. Then
Zr. 53. there is his great contrast, Dickens, for ever writing of hs
desire to elevate the masses and to put down insolence in high
places. I saw a note from him in which he refused to sig?
a petition for the repeal of the taxes on knowledge, on the
express ground that he would not promote a deluge of
printer’s ink in England similar to what he had seen in
America. The most reliable politicians are your wiry log*
cians of the Jefferson or Calhoun stamp. They may be
liable to false starts, but when once you know their pre
mises you can calculate their course and where to find them:
“ Midhurst, June 6. (To Mr. Ewart)—I must confess
the proceedings of your Hon. House have done much
bo reconcile me to my rustication, for its tone is subservient
 even to sycophancy. We have had the ¢ Barebones
Parliament,” the ‘Long Parliament,” the ¢ Unlearned
Parliament,” but the present ought to be named the
‘Servile Parliament.” From such an assembly I confess
[am not sorry to be excluded. There has always been
until now a body of men, sometimes more and sometimes
fewer in the House, who counted themselves for something
better than Whigs or Tories, and who were bent on securing
something for the public as the price of their support of the
more Liberal section of the aristocracy. These men, whether
numbering thirty or eighty, were the pioneers of every good
work. As a party they seem no longer to have an existence
in this Parliament. When they reappear, and the public
have recovered their taste for earnest politics, I hope I
shall be of their number; but till then the House of Commons
 would not suit me, or I suit it.
“Dec. 8. (To Mr. Moffutt.)—1It is very kind and friendly io
you, as usual, to think of me. This post has also brought &
letter from Lancashire, saying some of the leaders at Ashton
would wish me $0 succeed to poor Hindley. But I have