# Mr. Abel Wharton, Q.C. explained — The Prime Minister

> Chapter companion for The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope.

## What happens

Lopez decides to approach Mr. Wharton directly to ask for Emily's hand, hoping to manage the father's objections. Mr. Wharton, an elderly, wealthy Equity barrister, is skeptical of Lopez's foreign parentage and precarious profession in foreign loans, using the former as a clear ground for refusal. The chapter also details Mr. Wharton's character, habits, and his quiet but authoritative life in London.

## Themes in this chapter

### Social Class and Identity

Mr. Wharton's objection to Lopez's Portuguese parentage and his preference for an 'English son-in-law' highlight class and national identity as barriers to marriage.

### Wealth and Financial Insecurity

Lopez's work in foreign loans is dismissed by Wharton as precarious gambling, reflecting anxieties about financial stability in marriage.

### Deception and Self-Invention

Lopez strategically admits his foreign birth to avoid revealing more questionable aspects of his past, using self-invention to navigate social obstacles.

## Character check-ins

### Ferdinand Lopez

Decides to confront Mr. Wharton directly about marrying Emily, using his foreign birth as an open admission to avoid deeper scrutiny.

### Abel Wharton

A wealthy, aging Equity barrister who values English lineage and is wary of Lopez's background and speculative business; he firmly but politely rejects Lopez's suit.

### Emily Lopez

Mentioned as Mr. Wharton's daughter, with whom he shares a quiet domestic life; her feelings are not yet known to her father.

## Key lines

> Lopez was not a man to let grass grow under his feet when he had anything to do.

Lopez acted quickly and decisively when he had a goal.

_Introduces Lopez's proactive nature in pursuing Emily._

> Mr. Wharton was a man of old fashions, who would think himself ill-used and his daughter ill-used, and who would think also that a general offence would have been committed against good social manners, if his daughter were to be asked for her hand without his previous consent.

Mr. Wharton held traditional views and expected to be consulted before any marriage proposal to his daughter.

_Explains Wharton's expectations and the social norms of the time._

> He was one of those men who, as in youth they are never very young, so in age are they never very old.

Mr. Wharton had a consistent, steady temperament throughout his life.

_Describes Wharton's unchanging character._

> When one man is a peer and another a ploughman, that is an accident. One doesn't find fault with the ploughman, but one doesn't ask him to dinner.

Social distinctions based on birth are accidental but still determine one's place in society.

_Wharton's blunt justification for rejecting Lopez based on birth._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_prime_minister_se/chapters/iii-mr-abel-wharton-q-c
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_prime_minister_se
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