They had shed their brutality and extravagance; their eccentricities were of a ...

They had shed their brutality and extravagance; their eccentricities were of a harmless sporting kind; they were forward in good works; they habitually had family prayers Of two rich men, or two clever men, England was not ashamed to prefer the gentleman, and the preference operated for the benefit of many gentlemen who were both poor and stupid. Mr Podsnap is not a bad man: in the one crisis he has to face he acts with right decision.

But Dickens's heart is with little Mr Twemlow, who never made a decision in his life and would probably have got it wrong if he had. If they had stood against each other for a borough constituency in the South it is not improbable that the ten-pound householders would have chosen Mr Twemlow.

England is large, there is room, and a future, for Sir Leicester and the Iron-master, but Mr Podsnap is a belated and sterile type.