for the spirit of man as well as for his stomach?

More and more, I think, gentlemen will stand aloof from politics--I
mean, gentlemen who have received in their blood and in their training
those notions of graciousness, sweetness, and nobleness which flow from
centuries of piety and learning. Only here and there will such a man
accept the odious conditions of our public life, inspired by a sense of
duty, and prepared to endure the intolerable ugliness and dishonesty of
politics for the sake of a cause which moves him with all the force of a
great affection. But on the whole it is probable that the political
fortunes of this great and beautiful country are committed for many
years to hands which are not merely over-rough for so precious a charge,
but not near clean enough for the sacredness of the English cause.

Only by indirect action, only by a much more faithful energy on the part
of Aristocracy and the Church, and a far nobler realization of its
responsibilities by the Press, can the ancient spirit of England make
itself felt in the sordid lists of Westminster. Till then he who crows
loudest will rule the roost.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Croker writes from Paris of a visit to St. Cloud, where he found
Blücher and his staff in possession: "The great hall was a common
guard-house, in which the Prussians were drinking, spitting, smoking,
and sleeping in all directions." Denon complained greatly of the
Prussians and said he was "malheureux to have to do with a bête féroce,
un animal indécrottable, le Prince Blücher."