There was no truth in the whole story. Lord Beaconsfield
rose on Thursday in the Lords to explain, and the explanation was crushing. He had sorcely known Mr. Pigott, the Rector of Hughenden, who left Bucks thirty years ago, and whose only electioneering relation to the Member was to register his vote against him. As to Mr. Pigott, Junior, he had never formed his acquaintance, did not know him by sight, and had never received from him any request for the appointment. He had, no doubt, thrown over the recommendation of the Select Committee to appoint a stationer or printer, because he should not have obtained a good man for the money, but he had taken steps to reduce expenditure in the office ; and it had been reduced by Mr. Rowland Winn, a Lord of the Treasury—not a business man, but a Lincolnshire squire—by 240,000 a year. He had asked several experienced public servants to take the ap- pointment, but they had declined it, and he had then had six names of active juniors submitted to him, from among whom he had, by a process of exhaustion, chosen Mr. Pigott. He was not ashamed of the nomination, and till the House of Commons other- wise decided be should not accept Mr. Pigott's resignation, and so reduce him to destitution without any fault of his own. There is no possible answer to a statement of that kind, so full, direct, and conclusive, except disproof of the facts, which is, of course, out of the question ; and Mr. Pigott, who is quite innocent in the matter, must keep his appointment. Only how
came Sir S. Northcote, who is Chancellor of the Exchequer, to be ignorant of all that?
