in his stead. The day
after Sir Brian was laid in his vault at Newcome, a letter appeared in the local
papers addressed to the Independent Electors of that Borough, in which his
orphaned son, feelingly alluding to the virtue, the services, and the political
principles of the deceased, offered himself as a candidate for the seat in
Parliament now vacant. Sir Barnes announced that he should speedily pay his
respects in person to the friends and supporters of his lamented father. That he
was a stanch friend of our admirable constitution need not be said. That he was
a firm, but conscientious upholder of our Protestant religion, all who knew
Barnes Newcome must be aware. That he would do his utmost to advance the
interests of this great agricultural, this great manufacturing county and
borough, we may be sure he avowed; as that he would be (if returned to represent
Newcome in Parliament) the advocate of every rational reform, the unhesitating
opponent of every reckless innovation. In fine, Barnes Newcome's manifesto to
the Electors of Newcome was as authentic a document, and gave him credit for as
many public virtues, as that slab over poor Sir Brian's bones in the chancel of
Newcome church, which commemorated the good qualities of the defunct, and the
grief of his heir.
    In spite of the virtues, personal and inherited, of Barnes, his seat for
Newcome was not got without a contest. The Dissenting interest and the
respectable Liberals of the borough wished to set up Samuel Higg, Esq., against
Sir Barnes Newcome; and now it was that Barnes's civilities of the previous
year, aided by Madame de Montcontour's influence over her brother, bore their
fruit. Mr. Higg declined to stand against Sir Barnes Newcome, although Higg's
political principles were by no means those of the honourable Baronet; and the
candidate from London, whom the Newcome extreme Radicals set up against Barnes,
was nowhere on the poll when the day of election came. So Barnes had the desire
of his heart, and within two months after his father's demise he sat in
Parliament as Member for Newcome.
    The bulk of the late Baronet's property descended, of course, to his eldest
son, who grumbled, nevertheless, at the provision made for his brothers and
sisters, and that the town-house should have been left to Lady Ann, who was too
poor to inhabit it. But Park Lane is the best situation in London, and Lady
Ann's means were greatly improved by the annual produce of the house in Park
Lane, which, as