'ud be good fun, though, if so-be,« said Old Sleck, allowing himself an
imaginative pleasure.
    »Well, well, if a Spratt wants you to say Garstin, it's some pleasure to
think you can say Transome. Now, my notion is this. You are men who can put two
and two together - I don't know a more solid lot of fellows than you are; and
what I say is, let the honest men in this country who've got no vote show
themselves in a body when they have the chance. Why, sirs, for every Tory sneak
that's got a vote, there's fifty-five fellows who must stand by and be expected
to hold their tongues. But I say, let 'em hiss the sneaks, let 'em groan at the
sneaks, and the sneaks will be ashamed of themselves. The men who've got votes
don't know how to use them. There's many a fool with a vote, who is not sure in
his mind whether he shall poll, say for Debarry, or Garstin, or Transome -
whether he'll plump or whether he'll split; a straw will turn him. Let him know
your mind if he doesn't know his own. What's the reason Debarry gets returned?
Because people are frightened at the Debarrys. What's that to you? You don't
care for the Debarrys. If people are frightened at the Tories, we'll turn round
and frighten them. You know what a Tory is - one who wants to drive the working
men as he'd drive cattle. That's what a Tory is; and a Whig is no better, if
he's like Garstin. A Whig wants to knock the Tory down and get the whip, that's
all. But Transome's neither Whig nor Tory; he's the working man's friend, the
collier's friend, the friend of the honest navvy. And if he gets into
Parliament, let me tell you, it will be the better for you. I don't say it will
be the better for overlookers and screws, and rats and sprats; but it will be
the better for every good fellow who takes his pot at the Sugar Loaf.«
    Mr Johnson's exertions for the political education of the Sproxton men did
not stop here, which was the more disinterested in him as he did not expect to
see them again, and could only set on foot