“Assuredly!” the red-haired lawyer said indignantly, looking a half air of patronage towards Chamilly, and breathing in for a steady blast of eloquence:  “It is time these ridiculous ideas which forbid us so many successes were sent back to Paradise, and that such elections as the present were governed upon rational principles.  We cannot offer the people directly what is good for them; because it is not what they want.  What they want, is what we must first of all assume to provide.  Once in power we can persuade them afterwards.  Gentlemen, to get into power is the first absolute necessity.  We cannot defeat the enemy except by opposing to them some of their own methods.  Revive the courage of the young men by offering what they deserve—­good places in case of success!  Replenish the coffers by having our army of contractors to oppose to the ranks of theirs.  If they lie, we have a right to lie.  If they spend money, we must spend it.  If they cajole with figures, surely our advantage as to the facts would enable us to produce others still more astonishing.  Human nature is not angelic—­and you can never make it otherwise.”

“My friend,” answered Chamilly, raising his strong frame deliberately, “these are the very principles that I am resolutely determined to battle with all my forces, I care not whether among my foes or my friends.  Must our young Liberals learn over again what Liberalism is?  The true way to enter polities is none other at any time than to deliberately choose a higher stand and methods.  Trickeries are easier and sometimes lead to a kind of success:  if our objects were sordid, we might descend to demeaning hypocrisies, we might cheat, we might thieve, perjure, and be puppets, and perhaps so win our way to power; we might think we could use these to better ends, though that doctrine succeeds but rarely;—­and perhaps what we might achieve may appear to you of some value, even of great value to you.”

“Yet, no, my friends of Dormilliere, your very work is to lay the foundations of sincerity deep in this sphere, and to withstand and eradicate the existing political evils.  ‘One must determine,’ said a very great man, ‘to serve the people and not to please them.’  If some youth replies, ’This is a laborious, troublesome, hopeless occupation, in which there is not reward enough to make it worth my while,’ I tell him but ’Attack it:  rejoice to see something so near to challenge your mettle, and if you meet the battle boldly so, and ennoble yourself, you will immediately understand how to think of the ennoblement of your people and your country as glorious.’ ’Altius tendimus!  We move towards a higher!’—­The country reads our motto, and is watching what we practise.  Give it an answer in all your acts!”

Chamilly’s manner of uttering these words produced the only perfect stillness the meeting observed during the evening, for the French-Canadians have a custom of talking among themselves throughout any ordinary debate.  Their respect for Chamilly was striking.  L’Honorable listened with a smile of pleasure; Zotique looked all loyalty:  and the young men beamed their over-flowing flowing endorsation of sentiments worthy of the Vigers, Dorions, and Papineaus, those grand men whose portraits hung upon their walls.