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
clericalallies, 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
annualincomeappointed 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-calledwarden.
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
clericalpalm 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" target="_blank" title="n.抢劫(案);盗取">
robbery of the
wardenof 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, ir
reverend, 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
immensetriumph 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
advocatewhich 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 pos
session 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