Could anything be so false, so weak, so malignant, so useless, so wicked, so self-condemned,--in fact, so "Liberal" as a course of action such as this? The belief naturally to be deduced from such statements, nay, the unavoidable conviction on the minds--of, at any rate, the Conservative newspapers--was that Mr. Melmotte had accumulated an immense fortune, and that he had never robbed any shareholder of a shilling.

Could anything be so false, so weak, so wicked - in fact, so "Liberal" as this contradiction? The natural deduction from this, said the Conservative newspapers, was that Mr. Melmotte had an immense fortune, and that he had never robbed any shareholder of a shilling.
