SCENE iv PART SECOND
SECOND MEMBER Anybody could have said it, come to that.
THIRD MEMBER
Yes, because it is so true. However, when he began to lay on with such rhetoric as " the treasures of the nation lavished in wasteful thoughtlessness/'— "thousands of our troops sacrificed wantonly in the pestilential swamps of Walcheren," and gave the details we know so well, Ministers wriggled a good one, though 'twas no news to 'em. Castlereagh kept on starting forward as if he were going to jump up and interrupt, taking the strictures entirely as a personal affront.
Enter a fourth member.
SEVERAL MEMBERS Who's speaking now ?
FOURTH MEMBER
I don't know. I have heard of nobody later than Ward.
SECOND MEMBER
The fact is that, as Whitbread said to me to-day, the materials for condemnation are so prodigious that we^an scarce marshal them into argument. We are just able to pour 'em out one upon t'other.
THIRD MEMBER
Ward said, with the blandest air in the world: " Censure ? Do his Majesty's Ministers expect censure? Not a bit. They are going about asking in tremulous tones if anybody has heard when their impeachment is going to begin."
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