Between those lamps is the entrance to the House of Commons, and none but Members may go that way! It is the only gate before which I have ever stood filled with envy,—sorrowing to think that my steps might never pass under it. There are many portals forbidden to me, as there are many forbidden to all men; and forbidden fruit, they say, is sweet; but my lips have watered after no other fruit but that which grows so high, within the sweep of that great policeman's truncheon.
Trollope narrates his own failure: he spent £ 400 of his own money (~$$ 60,000.00 today) running on the Liberal ticket and came in last out of 4 candidates: the seat went to two Conservatives
