Rather beaten on this ground, Mr.Tulliver proceeded to express his fears that the country could never again be what it used to be; but Mr.Deane, attached to a firm of which the returns were on the increase, naturally took a more lively view of the present, and had some details to give concerning the state of the imports, especially in hides and spelter, which soothed Mr.Tulliver's imagination by throwing into more distant perspective the period when the country would become utterly the prey of Papists and Radicals, and there would be no more chance for honest men.
Uncle Pullet sat by and listened with twinkling eyes to these high matters.

He didn't understand politics himself,--thought they were a natural gift,--but by what he could make out, this Duke of Wellington was no better than he should be..