Phineas Finn | Page 3

about the doctor's wealth, it
was supposed that there would not be above five hundred pounds a year
among them all, were he to give up his profession. But the doctor,
when he paid that three hundred pounds for his son, buckled to his
work again, though he had for twelve months talked of giving up the
midwifery. He buckled to again, to the great disgust of Dr. Duggin,
who at this time said very ill-natured things about young Phineas.
At the end of the three years Phineas was called to the Bar, and
immediately received a letter from his father asking minutely as to his
professional intentions. His father recommended him to settle in Dublin,
and promised the one hundred and fifty pounds for three more years, on
condition that this advice was followed. He did not absolutely say that
the allowance would be stopped if the advice were not followed, but
that was plainly to be implied. That letter came at the moment of a
dissolution of Parliament. Lord de Terrier, the Conservative Prime
Minister, who had now been in office for the almost unprecedentedly
long period of fifteen months, had found that he could not face
continued majorities against him in the House of Commons, and had
dissolved the House. Rumour declared that he would have much
preferred to resign, and betake himself once again to the easy glories of
opposition; but his party had naturally been obdurate with him, and he
had resolved to appeal to the country. When Phineas received his
father's letter, it had just been suggested to him at the Reform Club that
he should stand for the Irish borough of Loughshane.
This proposition had taken Phineas Finn so much by surprise that when
first made to him by Barrington Erle it took his breath away. What! he
stand for Parliament, twenty-four years old, with no vestige of property
belonging to him, without a penny in his purse, as completely
dependent on his father as he was when he first went to school at
eleven years of age! And for Loughshane, a little borough in the county
Galway, for which a brother of that fine old Irish peer, the Earl of Tulla,
had been sitting for the last twenty years,--a fine, high-minded
representative of the thorough-going Orange Protestant feeling of
Ireland! And the Earl of Tulla, to whom almost all Loughshane

belonged,--or at any rate the land about Loughshane,--was one of his
father's staunchest friends! Loughshane is in county Galway, but the
Earl of Tulla usually lived at his seat in county Clare, not more than ten
miles from Killaloe, and always confided his gouty feet, and the weak
nerves of the old countess, and the stomachs of all his domestics, to the
care of Dr. Finn. How was it possible that Phineas should stand for
Loughshane? From whence was the money to come for such a contest?
It was a beautiful dream, a grand idea, lifting Phineas almost off the
earth by its glory. When the proposition was first made to him in the
smoking-room at the Reform Club by his friend Erle, he was aware that
he blushed like a girl, and that he was unable at the moment to express
himself plainly,--so great was his astonishment and so great his
gratification. But before ten minutes had passed by, while Barrington
Erle was still sitting over his shoulder on the club sofa, and before the
blushes had altogether vanished, he had seen the improbability of the
scheme, and had explained to his friend that the thing could not be done.
But to his increased astonishment, his friend made nothing of the
difficulties. Loughshane, according to Barrington Erle, was so small a
place, that the expense would be very little. There were altogether no
more than 307 registered electors. The inhabitants were so far removed
from the world, and were so ignorant of the world's good things, that
they knew nothing about bribery. The Hon. George Morris, who had sat
for the last twenty years, was very unpopular. He had not been near the
borough since the last election, he had hardly done more than show
himself in Parliament, and had neither given a shilling in the town nor
got a place under Government for a single son of Loughshane. "And he
has quarrelled with his brother," said Barrington Erle. "The devil he
has!" said Phineas. "I thought they always swore by each other." "It's at
each other they swear now," said Barrington; "George has asked the
Earl for more money, and the Earl has cut up rusty." Then the
negotiator went on to explain that the expenses of the election would be
defrayed out of a certain fund collected for such purposes, that
Loughshane had been chosen as a cheap place, and