The Four Swans by Winston Graham Page A

see what answers best without going to personal expense. Also I have a deal of waste ground, where I have encouraged the poor to build cottages, and I have allotted three acres to each. They pay two and sixpence an acre as rent; often good land is made of it, the tenants being chiefly miners who cultivate their ground in their spare hours:
    Ross said ‘You are suggesting, Sir Francis: you are suggesting something of a revolt in the pocket borough of Truro, is that it? Whereby, at this by-election now pending, the corporation of the town should fail to vote for Lord Falmouth’s nominee and should instead vote for the candidate you put forward? That is the proposition?’
    `Roughly that is the proposition. As you may know, the voting rests with the aldermen and the capital burgesses, who total twenty-five in all. I believe I may count on enough of them now. They are heartily sick of their treatment at the hands of Lord Falmouth, whose manner of choosing Members to represent the borough in Parliament is so, high-handed as to make the burgesses feel corrupt and prostituted to the sale of their votes at his absolute direction.’
    `Would that not be a fair approximation to the truth?’
    Basset smiled thinly. `I think you are trying to provoke me.
    Compared to many boroughs, their record is not an ill one. They receive favours for their votes but no money changes hands. It is understandable that they should feel insulted by being treated as lackeys.’
    “And this palace revolution. Who would lead it?’ ‘The new mayor, William Hick.’
    `Who no doubt made protestations of loyalty to Falmouth before he was elected.’
    `No doubt he meant them. There is a difference between wishing well of a man and allowing oneself to be trampled on by him.’
    They paused in their walk. A flock of jackdaws was chattering in
    the trees.
    Ross said : `I am honoured by your thought. But I would be quite the wrong man.’
    `Possibly. That would remain to be seen. Before you say more, allow me to be explicit. If your name went forward it would do so free of all cost to yourself. This is exceptional, as you must know. If you were elected you would serve until the end of the present parliament, however long that might be. At that stage you would consider whether you wished to continue - or whether I wished you to continue. It might be one year, or of course it might be several yet: I am not in Pitt’s confidence.’
    `But you would expect me to vote as you directed.’
    `Not directed. I am not a Falmouth. But generally as Pitt’s supporter. Naturally there could be occasions when I and my colleague at Penryn, together with several others - and yourself - might wish to take an independent line.’
    `Individually or collectively?’
    Sir Francis looked at him. `Collectively.’
    They walked on. They had not taken the direct route up to the terrace and were walking parallel to the rise of the hill.
    Basset said: `My proposition comes unexpectedly to you. Take a week to consider it before you reply.’
    Ross inclined his head in acknowledgment. `My father used to quote Chatham, who said that the rotten boroughs of England were excrescences which must be amputated to save the whole body from mortification. I have accepted his view without bothering to verify it; but I suspect that this prejudice will be hard to dislodge.’
    They broke off the main path, and Basset led the way through some undergrowth until they reached another and narrower path climbing upward. For a time they were in single file; then Sir Francis paused to get his breath and to look back: at the house. He said: `Thomas Edwardes of Greenwich designed it - he who added the steeple to St Mary’s in Truro. Considering how comparative new the house is, it has all merged into the countryside very well…’
    `Did you tell me the ceiling in the library had been done recent?’ ‘Re-done. I did not like the previous design.’
    `I am making a small extension to my own house and shall need