Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1885-12-04
CHAPTER III.
CdAI Ef III.
COMPLETES THE STORY OF JOHN NEEnHA.

COMPLETES THE STORY OF JOHN NEEDHAM's
RISE, AND ALSO DESCRIBES HIS FALL.
Although from monetary point of view
lord of the treasury is no great advance
ment, the prospect which it opens up to
a capable man and an aspiring mind in
cludes the premiership itself. On the way
to that seat of authority, what powerful
and profitable halting place is the secre.
taryship to the treasury And only think
what wealth an inscriptions chancellor of
the exchequer might command in one short
year of oficel To maa of John Need,
hams audacity the situation would have
been full of the most tremendous pos
sibilities
In military warfare if man turn traitor
he IS shot. The field of politics allows a
much broader margin for the action of in.
dividual Independence. John Needham was
shamefully untrue to the party that elected
him to be its chief, and the result was his
advancement to the honorable and high
post of lord of the treasury. Had he been
successful in some other transsressions
against morality, bis political treason
would, in all proba bility, have led him to
the very highest place in tho queen gov
esnmant
1t may be left to the philosophic analyst
to consider whether pure and righteous
patriot at the head Of English affairs might
not bring about disasters as serious as those
which would be expected to follow the
operations of an INSCRIPTIONS knave. Never
theless the imagination reels at the thought
chat John Needham might have SUCCESSFULLY
filled the great offices of state that lead up
TO the premiership.
A man of conspicuous ability, he could
fairly have looked forward to this post of
honor and of power The situation is full
of temptations to moralist. The author
who worked out the posi- bilities of creation
in the hands Of Satan would find plenty of
material for speculation in the possibilities
of an English policy, foreign or otherwise,
with John Needham at Downing street.
It may be that after his first depredations.
which would have given him command of
untold wealth, John Nesdham might have
paused and given his country a chance
John Needham above want, beyond the
reach of financial difficulty, might have de-
velopei higher phase of character than it
is the historians duty to exhibit with the
existing materials; for, so far as the facts
are concerned John Needham, at the time
of his introduction to office under the adj
ministration of Lord Aberdeen, was swim
der and thief; and the circumstances in
which he was placed at later date might
have led even a less desperate man to the
committal of the most serious crime known
to the law.
If the new lord of the treasury ever had
made his way to the premiership he could
have BEEN as rich as the weathiest of the
Rothschilds AMI he would for in his ap-
pointment he already contemplated the next
step on the road to it. The secretary ship of
the treasury would naturally come easily
and soon to a man of his ability. The patron
age and emoluments of this offica would
have lem turnei to quick and profitable &C
count; and think of the vast wealth that
chancellor of the exchequer, operating di-
rec5ly CT indirectly in thu city, could realize
''with a simple stroke of the penI'
ITO be Continued.1