It seemed impossible that Polterham could ever fall from its honourable position among the Conservative strongholds of the country; but the times were corrupt, a revolutionary miasma was spreading to every corner of the land.

Polterham must no longer repose in the security of conscious virtue, for if it _did_ happen that, at the coming election, the unprincipled multitude even came near to achieving a triumph, oh what a fall were there! Thus spoke the _Mercury_.

And in the same week Mr.Mumbray's vacant house was secured by a provisional committee on behalf of the Polterham Constitutional Literary Society.
The fine old crusted party had some reason for their alarm.

Since Polterham was a borough it had returned a Tory Member as a matter of course.

Political organization was quite unknown to the supporters of Mr.Welwyn-Baker; such trouble had never seemed necessary.