Still they applauded, hurriedly, to get it over and hear
what more might be coming. Bingham, on the platform,
laughed heartily and conspicuously, as if anybody could
see that it was all an excellent joke. Lorne half-turned
to him with a gesture of protest. Then he went on--
"If that transport ever left the shores of England we
would go far, some of us, to meet it; but for all the
purposes that matter most it sailed long ago. British
statesmen could bring us nothing better than the ideals
of British government; and those we have had since we
levied our first tax and made our first law. That precious
cargo was our heritage, and we never threw it overboard,
but chose rather to render what impost it brought; and
there are those who say that the impost has been heavy,
though never a dollar was paid."
He paused for an instant and seemed to review and take
account of what he had said. He was hopelessly adrift
from the subject he had proposed to himself, launched
for better or for worse upon the theme that was subliminal
in him and had flowed up, on which he was launched, and
almost rudderless, without construction and without
control. The speech of his first intention, orderly,
developed, was as far from him as the history of Liberalism
in Fox County. For an instant he hesitated; and then,
under the suggestion, no doubt, of that ancient misbehaviour
in Boston Harbour at which he had hinted, he took up
another argument.
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