When the Whigs were about retiring they determined on a gross and scandalous abuse of power for the purpose of rewarding an unscrupulous partisan, even though it involved an affront to one of their oldest and ablest friends, the then Irish Chancellor.

That man was Lord Plunket, who had served the Whigs so faithfully, honourably and fearlessly.

He was commanded to retire in order to make room for Sir John Campbell, who was thereby to be qualified for the English peerage.
The stipendiaried journals of the Castle exhausted their adulation, and had received their last reward for upholding the appointment.

The Tory press, hungry for the spoil which it maddened the others to lose, paid back the compliments by intense vituperation.

The slang of party warfare was bandied in the usual fashion, without thought or a care beyond the interest of party.