M.P. HA! Canon! you're come up again to hear your fate. Can. Yes! I can't rest till I know the end. M.P. I'll send my horse home, and have a walk with you. What's the time? A quarter past 4. We shall have just time to walk quietly down to the House; and talk over our affairs. Can. What a pace you've been travelling since I saw you. Your Parly train has been going express. It makes one's eyes ache to look at the orders of the day. M.P. Always the way with us; long talk at the beginning, short work at the end; that's the history of every Session; I shall be heartily glad when it's over. Can. Do you think your Commission Bill will come on today? M.P. I can't say; I hear the Chancellor of the Exchequer is going to move to postpone the orders of the day, to purify the River. Father Thames stops the way; Cum flueret lutulentus erat quod tollere velles. Old Horace everywhere! by clear spring, splendidior vitro, or foul river. It will be late before you come on, if at all. Can. I should be glad if it was never. How many must you have present at a second reading? M.P. Can. M.P. Can. Forty. 40 per cent, you mean? No! 40 men. And the same for all Bills, whatever their contents? M.P. Yes! 40 can do anything. Can. Would 40 be enough after midnight, July 15, to make over the Fee Simple of Church Property from its present owners to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners? M.P. Yes! 40 could do it as well as 500. Can. Then I hope the House will be counted, and just 39 present. M.P. Articles. You old bigot! You never get beyond your thirty-nine But you haven't told me what your Dean says, and the rest of the Chapter. Can. They are very angry; but their anger is deep, not loud. There has not been such consternation since the day the Verger drew the curtain in the midst of the service, and said, The Nave's on fire. M.P. Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night, and told him Troy was burnt. What did you do? Can. What we mean to do with your confiscation-scheme; we threw cold water upon it, and put it out; thank God. There was no need then to write to London, and ask for leave; we got the engines to work, and all the city helped us heartily. Misericordiæ Domini, quia non consumti sumus. M.P. Do you know, I'm very sorry for one word I said on Monday night. M.P. Advising you to petition the Queen. Can. What harm was there in that? No doubt we shall, if you pass the Bill. M.P. Well! now I want you just to think of the consequences. First, suppose you fail. Can. We fail! screw up our courage, and we'll not fail. The Queen will hold out the golden sceptre to us, as the King did to Esther. But if our petition should not be granted, we have done our duty; and shall never love Her Gracious Majesty one whit the less. For loyalty is still the same, Although it be not shone upon. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. M.P. Yes! but remember there is such a thing as promotion; and if you go about to thwart the Ministry in a Bill like this, where will you be? Deans and Canons all your lives. No mitres for opposition-men. Can. We can't help that! Promotion cometh neither from the East nor the West; we have taken an oath to defend our rights pro virili. Do you M.P.s feel at all fettered in speech by the fear of not being made Peers? Ever since I have been a Canon, we have been used to speak our mind-Wellington or Melbourne, Palmerston or Derby-Tros, Tyriusque εἷς οἰωνὸς ἄριστος, ἀμύνεσθαι περὶ πάτρης. One omen guides us,-to defend our rights.. M.P. Noble Hector! but he fell at last. Can. How bright and fresh the turf grows where the Crystal Palace stood! We are just crossing the Great Transept. There are the trees-real trees of liberty-which the people would not let the Royal Commissioners cut down; and the noblest part of the building sprung out of this determined stand for rooted rights-they were obliged to vault them over. And there's Old Pump!-how well I remember him, under the arch of the Transept-He's an ancient institution of the country, and the Commissioners couldn't touch him. Their fabric has passed away, having served its purpose, and here stands Old Pump, homely as ever, but giving out fresh water daily! Esto perpetuus. All M.P. I wish I had'nt sent away my horse; you moralize every thing you see or hear against our unfortunate Bill. this is sermoni propiora; properer for a sermon1. But I want to say a word more about your Petition to the Queen. Suppose by some rare good fortune you should succeed -think what must happen. Can. Why? we shall escape the evil which your hasty proceedings threatened, and it will be a long time before such 1 Charles Lamb. |