When, therefore, Phineas Finn talked of measures and not men, Barrington Erle turned away in open disgust.

But he remembered the youth and extreme rawness of the lad, and he remembered also the careers of other men.
Barrington Erle was forty, and experience had taught him something.
After a few seconds, he brought himself to think mildly of the young man's vanity,--as of the vanity of a plunging colt who resents the liberty even of a touch.

"By the end of the first session the thong will be cracked over his head, as he patiently assists in pulling the coach up hill, without producing from him even a flick of his tail," said Barrington Erle to an old parliamentary friend.
"If he were to come out after all on the wrong side," said the parliamentary friend.
Erle admitted that such a trick as that would be unpleasant, but he thought that old Lord Tulia was hardly equal to so clever a stratagem.
Phineas went to Ireland, and walked over the course at Loughshane.
He called upon Lord Tulla, and heard that venerable nobleman talk a great deal of nonsense.

To tell the truth of Phineas, I must confess that he wished to talk the nonsense himself; but the Earl would not hear him, and put him down very quickly.

"We won't discuss politics, if you please, Mr.Finn; because, as I have already said, I am throwing aside all political considerations." Phineas, therefore, was not allowed to express his views on the government of the country in the Earl's sitting-room at Castlemorris.