Eleanor Harding his fate was sealed, unless he could consent
to give up a task to which he had pledged himself and which

indeed it would not be easy for him to give up. Lawyers were
engaged, and the question had to a certain extent been taken

up by the public; besides, how could a high-spirited girl like
Eleanor Harding really learn to love a man for neglecting a

duty which he assumed! Could she allow her affection to be
purchased at the cost of his own self-respect?

As regarded the issue of his attempt at reformation in the
hospital, Bold had no reason hitherto to be discontented with

his success. All Barchester was by the ears about it. The
bishop, the archdeacon, the warden, the steward, and several

other clericalallies, had daily meetings, discussing their tactics,
and preparing for the great attack. Sir Abraham Haphazard

had been consulted, but his opinion was not yet received:
copies of Hiram's will, copies of wardens' journals, copies of

leases, copies of accounts, copies of everything that could be
copied, and of some that could not, had been sent to him;

and the case was assuming most creditable dimensions. But,
above all, it had been mentioned in the daily Jupiter. That all-

powerful organ of the press in one of its leading thunderbolts
launched at St Cross, had thus remarked: 'Another case,

of smaller dimensions indeed, but of similar import, is now
likely to come under public notice. We are informed that the

warden or master of an old almshouse attached to Barchester
Cathedral is in receipt of twenty-five times the annualincome

appointed for him by the will of the founder, while the sum
yearly expended on the absolute purposes of the charity has

always remained fixed. In other words, the legatees under
the founder's will have received no advantage from the increase

in the value of the property during the last four centuries,
such increase having been absorbed by the so-calledwarden.

It is impossible to conceive a case of greater injustice.
It is no answer to say that some six or nine or twelve old men

receive as much of the goods of this world as such old men
require. On what foundation, moral or divine, traditional or

legal, is grounded the warden's claim to the large income he
receives for doing nothing? The contentment of these almsmen,

if content they be, can give him no title to this wealth!
Does he ever ask himself, when he stretches wide his clerical

palm to receive the pay of some dozen of the working clergy,
for what service he is so remunerated? Does his conscience

ever entertain the question of his right to such subsidies? Or
is it possible that the subject never so presents itself to his

mind; that he has received for many years, and intends,
should God spare him, to receive for years to come these fruits

of the industrious piety of past ages, indifferent as to any right
on his own part, or of any injustice to others! We must

express an opinion that nowhere but in the Church of England,
and only there among its priests, could such a state of moral

indifference be found.'
I must for the present leave my readers to imagine the state

of Mr Harding's mind after reading the above article. They
say that forty thousand copies of The Jupiter are daily sold, and

that each copy is read by five persons at the least. Two hundred
thousand readers then would hear this accusation against him;

two hundred thousand hearts would swell with indignation at
the griping injustice, the barefaced robbery" target="_blank" title="n.抢劫(案)；盗取">robbery of the warden

of Barchester Hospital! And how was he to answer this? How
was he to open his inmost heart to this multitude, to these

thousands, the educated, the polished, the picked men of
his own country; how show them that he was no robber, no

avaricious, lazy priest scrambling for gold, but a retiring,
humble-spirited man, who had innocently taken what had

innocently been offered to him?
'Write to The Jupiter,' suggested the bishop.

'Yes,' said the archdeacon, more worldly wise than his
father, 'yes, and be smothered with ridicule; tossed over and

over again with scorn; shaken this way and that, as a rat in
the mouth of a practised terrier. You will leave out some

word or letter in your answer, and the ignorance of the cathedral
clergy will be harped upon; you will make some small

mistake, which will be a falsehood, or some admission, which
will be self-condemnation; you will find yourself to have

been vulgar, ill-tempered, irreverend, and illiterate, and the
chances are ten to one, but that being a clergyman, you will

have been guilty of blasphemy! A man may have the best of
causes, the best of talents, and the best of tempers; he may write

as well as Addison, or as strongly as Junius; but even with all
this he cannot successfully answer, when attacked by The Jupiter.

In such matters it is omnipotent. What the Czar is in Russia, or
the mob in America, that The Jupiter is in England. Answer

such an article! No, warden; whatever you do, don't do that.
We were to look for this sort of thing, you know; but we need

not draw down on our heads more of it than is necessary.'
The article in The Jupiter, while it so greatly harassed our

poor warden, was an immensetriumph to some of the opposite
party. Sorry as Bold was to see Mr Harding attacked so personally,

it still gave him a feeling of elation to find his cause taken up
by so powerful an advocate: and as to Finney, the attorney, he

was beside himself. What! to be engaged in the same cause and on
the same side with The Jupiter; to have the views he had

recommended seconded, and furthered, and battled for by The
Jupiter! Perhaps to have his own name mentioned as that of the

learned gentleman whose efforts had been so successful on behalf
of the poor of Barchester! He might be examined before committees

of the House of Commons, with heaven knows how much a day for his
personal expenses--he might be engaged for years on such a suit!

There was no end to the glorious golden dreams which this
leader in The Jupiter produced in the soaring mind of Finney.

And the old bedesmen, they also heard of this article, and
had a glimmering, indistinct idea of the marvellous advocate

which had now taken up their cause. Abel Handy limped
hither and thither through the rooms, repeating all that he

understood to have been printed, with some additions of his
own which he thought should have been added. He told

them how The Jupiter had declared that their warden was no
better than a robber, and that what The Jupiter said was

acknowledged by the world to be true. How The Jupiter had
affirmed that each one of them--'each one of us, Jonathan

Crumple, think of that!'--had a clear right to a hundred a
year; and that if The Jupiter had said so, it was better than a

decision of the Lord Chancellor: and then he carried about
the paper, supplied by Mr Finney, which, though none of

them could read it, still afforded in its very touch and aspect
positive corroboration of what was told them; and Jonathan

Crumple pondered deeply over his returning wealth; and
job Skulpit saw how right he had been in signing the petition,

and said so many scores of times; and Spriggs leered fearfully
with his one eye; and Moody, as he more nearly approached

the coming golden age, hated more deeply than ever those who
still kept possession of what he so coveted. Even Billy Gazy and

poor bed-ridden Bell became active and uneasy, and the great
Bunce stood apart with lowering brow, with deep grief seated

in his heart, for he perceived that evil days were coming.
It had been decided, the archdeacon advising, that no

remonstrance, explanation, or defence should be addressed from
the Barchester conclave to the editor of The Jupiter; but

hitherto that was the only decision to which they had come.
Sir Abraham Haphazard was deeply engaged in preparing

a bill for the mortification of papists, to be called the 'Convent
Custody Bill,' the purport of which was to enable any Protestant

clergyman over fifty years of age to search any nun whom he