I can only say that on such terms I cannot conscientiously serve them.
"I hope, and feel assured, that the sincerity with which I make this explicit declaration, will, if it deprive me of the votes of my friends at Leeds, secure to me what I value far more highly, their esteem.
"Believe me ever, my dear Sir, "Your most faithful Servant, "T.

B.MACAULAY." This frank announcement, taken by many as a slight, and by some as a downright challenge, produced remonstrances which, after the interval of a week, were answered by Macaulay in a second letter; worth reprinting if it were only for the sake of his fine parody upon the popular cry which for two years past had been the watchword of Reformers.
"I was perfectly aware that the avowal of my feelings on the subject of pledges was not likely to advance my interest at Leeds.

I was perfectly aware that many of my most respectable friends were likely to differ from me; and therefore I thought it the more necessary to make, uninvited, an explicit declaration of my feelings.

If ever there was a time when public men were in an especial measure _bound to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth_, to the people, this is that time.

Nothing is easier than for a candidate to avoid unpopular topics as long as possible, and, when they are forced on him, to take refuge in evasive and unmeaning phrases.