Accepted in the higher parliamentary circles as a useful party man, he had held various posts in the government. He incurred the enmity of Mr. Emilius by attempting to prove that the latter’s marriage to Lizzie Eustace was bigamous. After a quarrel at the Club with Phineas Finn, he was found murdered. Mr. Emilius was at first accused, but having a perfect (though, as it turned out, a fraudulent) alibi, the crime was charged to Phineas Finn, who was acquitted after a sensational trial.