The eighth Lord Liscombe was the last male member of his family.  The peerage must die with him; but his property, including the “Borough influence,” was at his own disposal.  His only sister had married a Mr. Vaughan, and Lord Liscombe, having carefully watched the character and career of his nephew Philip Vaughan, determined to make him his heir.  This was all very well; no one had a word to say against it, for no more obvious heir could be suggested.  But when it became known that Lord Liscombe meant to bring Philip Vaughan into Parliament for Bilton there was great dissatisfaction.  “What a shame,” people said, “to disturb old Mr. Cobley, who has sat so long and voted so steadily!  To be sure, he is very tiresome, and can’t make himself heard a yard off, and is very stingy about subscriptions; and, if there was some rising young man to put into his seat, as the Duke of Newcastle put Gladstone, it might be all very well.  But, really, Philip Vaughan is such a moody, dreamy creature, and so wrapped up in books and poetry, that he can never make a decent Member of Parliament.  Politics are quite out of his line, and I shouldn’t wonder if Lord Liscombe contrived to lose the seat.  But he’s as obstinate as a mule; and he has persuaded himself that young Vaughan is a genius.  Was there ever such folly?”

Lord Liscombe had his own way—­as he commonly had.  Mr. Cobley received a polite intimation that at the next election he would not be able to rely on the Liscombe interest, and retired with a very bad grace, but not without his reward; for before long he received the offer of a baronetcy (which he accepted, as he said, to please his wife), and died honourably as Sir Thomas Cobley.  Meanwhile Lord Liscombe, who, when he had framed a plan, never let the grass grow under his feet, induced Philip Vaughan to quit Oxford without waiting for a degree, made him address “Market Ordinaries” and political meetings at Bilton, presented him at the Levee, proposed him at his favourite clubs, gave him an ample allowance, and launched him, with a vigorous push, into society.  In all this Lord Liscombe did well, and showed his knowledge of human nature.  The air of politics stirred young Vaughan’s pulses as they had never been stirred before.  What casual observers had regarded as idle reveries turned out to have been serious studies.  With the theory of English politics, as it shaped itself in 1852 when Lord Derby and Disraeli were trying to restore Protection, Vaughan showed himself thoroughly acquainted; and, as often happens when a contemplative and romantic nature is first brought into contact with eager humanity, he developed a faculty of public speaking which astonished his uncle as much as it astonished anyone, though that astute nobleman concealed his surprise.  Meanwhile, Grey had got his commission.  In those days officers of the Guards lived in lodgings, so it was obvious for Grey and Vaughan to live together; and every now and then Grey would slip down to Bilton, and by making himself pleasant to the shop-keepers, and talking appropriately to the farmers, would act as his friend’s most effective election-agent.  The Dissolution came in July, 1852, and Philip Vaughan was returned unopposed for the Free and Independent Borough of Bilton.