the House is treated pretty much like the Bore at a dinner-party. The wit has his passing triumph in each; the tiresome talker is left to the one listener he has " buttonholed;" and the bumptious youth is as certainly snubbed and put down in the one place as the other. Excepting in cases of ability of the very highest order, and where success is to be achieved by unquestionable superiority, I am disposed to think that the men who will soonest distinguish themselves in the new House will be those who are distinctively "men of the world" -such, in fact, as mix most in society, and contribute largely by their gifts to the world they live in. The common sense of common life is a very available quality. It is a sort of money that every one accepts. It is a legal tender everywhere.

I suspect, too, there is a greater pleasure in listening to men of this stamp in general than to those who overawe us with a great reputation acquired elsewhere, and not always applicable to the questions of Parliament.

Parliament is like the playground of a great school. No matter how good a boxer a boy may be, there are fellows who will provoke him, even though certain to come worst out of the encounter. There is a thorough conviction that every one gets fair play.

Up to the time at which I am writing, nothing has occurred beyond brisk skirmishing. The large battalion has not moved, and the great battle has not yet opened. The distinguished member for Westminster (perhaps, to prevent mistake, I ought to say I do not mean Captain Grosvenor) propounded the ingenious theory that the possessor of diseased cattle needed no other recompense for his loss by their death than in the increased price the sound ones would be sure to fetch in the market; but he pleasantly ignored the fact that the sound ones might be his neigh

bour's. To a great philosophic patriotism, perhaps, this circumstance would detract but little from the force of the argument. The greatest-happiness principle is a large blanket,and covers much nakedness. The suggestion, at all events, was so remarkable as to have evoked from Mr Lowe the perhaps unwilling avowal, "He is too clever for us in this House." Indeed, it would not be exactly fair to expect the House of Commons to follow more refined subtleties than those of Mr Gladstone; and it would be as well if the collective wisdom were to affirm at once that they could not regard. conundrums as a legitimate part of statecraft. It appears to me, however, that on the present occasion the great thinker was plagiarising. I feel all the hazard of such an imputation. I own to myself it is like suspecting Baron Rothschild of passing a "duffer." My strength, however, lies in the fact that I am prepared to adduce the incident from which I am disposed to believe Mr Mill derived his illustration, and to show that in his theory of compensations he has no claim to originality.

It happened some time back that a stranger to the island-some say an Englishman-was experimenting on the range of his rifle on a very unvisited part of the sea coast of Sicily. It was a wild, uninhabited region, where in a day's ramble one never met a human being. Thus insured, as he trusted, against all risk of accident, our traveller fired at every rocky peak, every jutting crag, every rugged trunk that presented itself. last a small dark object, over which the waves seemed to break at times, attracted his eye, at a great distance off. It appeared to be out of range; but, determined to decide the point, he aimed and fired. Imagine his horror, on reaching the spot, to discover that his ball had killed a boy, passing through whose body it also killed an old woman some thirty yards farther off. They

At

had both been engaged gathering seaweed at the time.

He at once surrendered himself to the authorities, with a full confession as to the way the terrible disaster had occurred. The case was decreed to be one of accidental homicide, and the culprit was accordingly condemned to pay a fine. For the boy, who was an active, industrious lad, and the chief support of his family, it was decreed the recompense should be "four hundred ounces"-the coin of Sicily; but as the old woman had been only a great burden, and a charge for her support, the wise judge took off two hundred, reducing the penalty by one half.

If the Member for Westminster had heard of this event, all his claim to originality falls at once to the ground; for here we have the grand law of compensation admirably illustrated, and the theory by which good and evil balance each other strikingly exemplified. How to adjust the case of the sick cow to that of the old woman, I leave to an intelligent public.

It has often been remarked that if the great mathematical headsthe Tripos men-ever took to the Turf, they would show a capacity for "book-making" that would make the Ring tremble; and here is the doctrine of hedging fully developed, and one cannot but think that if the genius that dealt with the "external world" had only limited itself to that portion of it to be found at Doncaster, the results would be astounding.

As for Mr Bright, he has to confess that he thinks worse of Toryism than the Rinderpest. The latter may be treated, perhaps cured; he sees nothing but the poleaxe for the other. Was there ever such an unhappy countrythe Cows are as bad as the Conservatives?

Living far away from the scene of these mighty encounters, and only gleaning my little knowledge

of them from the newspapers, it strikes me that there must be something uncongenial-something unpleasant, perhaps unhealthy, in those seats "below the gangway" of the House of Commons, so invariably is the tone of the men who speak from these benches, harsh, irritating, and ungenerous.

Are the cushions-if there be cushions-less carefully stuffed, are there draughts in that quarter, or is it, I ask with diffidence, that the company is of that mixed and composite kind which so often is more suggestive of discord than of good feeling and brotherhood? In a word, are the men who sit there the "Casuals" of politics, only come in for a little warmth and shelter, waiting, perhaps, till Daddy Brand may minister to them with a ladleful of Treasury skilly?

No borough has yet seen the way to secure Cornelius O'Dowd as its representative. Indeed, I have not put forward my claims in that tangible and practicable shape which should attract the attention of my countrymen, and am myself largely to blame, if, to all seeming, overlooked and neglected. There is one pledge, however, I am ready and willing to give to any constituency honest and enlightened enough to select me, and I declare at the same time it is the only one I will bind myself to maintain. I will, if returned to Parliament, pass one night with "the Casuals" below the gangway, and, if my experiences be not as graphically narrated as that of the writer in Pall Mall,' I can only affirm that they shall be told as loyally and truthfully. Imitating my distinguished prototype, I will endeavour to be pointed without personality; and though I may hint at gluttony, or glance at idleness, I will not stoop to particularise him who skulks the "crank," or takes more than his share of the skilly. It would be, I am certain, doing good service to the public to expose some of

these people. There are men there who share Bright's "blanket" tonight, and to-morrow night are fain to ask for a corner of Lord Stanley's "rug"--who sip out of Gladstone's ladle to-day, and next day will entreat Disraeli to take their

turn at the crank. Ay, and when so ragged and tattered as to be a shame to be seen, they will tear up the good clothes they got on the Opposition benches, and insist upon a fresh suit of a new Whig pattern before they leave the House.

It has often been matter of astonishment to me that conjurors and sleight-of-hand folk have so little reluctance to explain all the mechanism by which they work their miracles, and are ever ready so to display to an admiring and bewildered public the secret threads and springs and hooks by which their skill was aided, and by whose agency they accomplished their marvellous feats. Besides the candour of this proceeding, there is an immense self-confidence in it. M. Houdin empties his tool-box on the table, but he knows well how useless the implements must be in other hands than his own! He tells indeed every step and incident of his performance, he shows you the few and very simple appliances of his address; but is there not in all this frankness a sense of conscious power that is almost boastful? Does he not say as plainly as words could say, "There is my magic-there my mystery; try now what you can do with them"? If he be ready to diminish the prestige of his art, it is that he may glorify himself. It is his pride to say, I have not one sense more than you are endowed with. Nature has given me no especial peculiarity of structure. My eye and my hand are very much like your own, and yet see what I can make of my faculties, and tell me if you can do anything similar?

If there be nothing more perfect ly frank and above-board than the way these men show the secrets of their address, once that the trick is done, and the audience has been overwhelmed with amazement, so

is there no subtlety too much to employ in the concealment of the secret agency while the miracle is being worked, and while they hold the public on the tenter-hooks of an eager and intense expectancy.

M. Houdin tells us that one of the highest gifts of an accomplished conjuror is the power to distract the attention of his audience from the peculiar miracle in hand, and engage their interest on something totally remote from it. To this end, he says, very considerable conversational powers are occasionally directed, and an ingenious explanation, or an interesting anecdote, will often occupy public attention sufficiently long to enable the performer to perfect his delusion. Occasionally, he adds, all these are not enough, and more material aids are required. A detonating shot, or some explosive powder which causes a dense smoke, will often produce the required mystification, and give ample time besides to effect the trick.

As I laid down the volume of one of these gifted and most celebrated performers, I could not help asking myself, Has this man been really treating of his art, or is the whole exposition only a clever allegory on modern diplomacy? Is, in a word, the prestidigitator a plenipotentiary and are the bouquets, the seraphic music, and the batter-puddings in one's hat another name for the courtesies, the chansons, and the œufs cassés of the diplomatic art?

If it be not an allegory, the resemblance is absolutely marvellous. In each case we have the great artist. In each case is he seen work

had both been engaged gathering seaweed at the time.

He at once surrendered himself to the authorities, with a full confession as to the way the terrible disaster had occurred. The case was decreed to be one of accidental homicide, and the culprit was accordingly condemned to pay a fine. For the boy, who was an active, industrious lad, and the chief support of his family, it was decreed the recompense should be "four hundred ounces "-the coin of Sicily; but as the old woman had been only a great burden, and a charge for her support, the wise judge took off two hundred, reducing the penalty by one half.

If the Member for Westminster had heard of this event, all his claim to originality falls at once to the ground; for here we have the grand law of compensation admirably illustrated, and the theory by which good and evil balance each other strikingly exemplified. How to adjust the case of the sick cow to that of the old woman, I leave to an intelligent public.

It has often been remarked that if the great mathematical headsthe Tripos men-ever took to the Turf, they would show a capacity for "book-making i that would make the Ring tremble; and here is the doctrine of hedging fully developed, and one cannot but think that if the genius that dealt with the "external world" had only limited itself to that portion of it to be found at Doncaster, the results would be astounding.

As for Mr Bright, he has to confess that he thinks worse of Toryism than the Rinderpest. The latter may be treated, perhaps cured; he sees nothing but the poleaxe for the other. Was there ever such an unhappy countrythe Cows are as bad as the Conservatives?

Living far away from the scene of these mighty encounters, and only gleaning my little knowledge

66

of them from the newspapers, it strikes me that there must be something uncongenial-something unpleasant, perhaps unhealthy, in those seats below the gangway" of the House of Commons, so invariably is the tone of the men who speak from these benches, harsh, irritating, and ungenerous.

Are the cushions-if there be cushions-less carefully stuffed, are there draughts in that quarter, or is it, I ask with diffidence, that the company is of that mixed and composite kind which so often is more suggestive of discord than of good feeling and brotherhood? In a word, are the men who sit there the Casuals" of politics, only come in for a little warmth and shelter, waiting, perhaps, till Daddy Brand may minister to them with a ladleful of Treasury skilly?

No borough has yet seen the way to secure Cornelius O'Dowd as its representative. Indeed, I have not put forward my claims in that tangible and practicable shape which should attract the attention of my countrymen, and am myself largely to blame, if, to all seeming, overlooked and neglected. There is one pledge, however, I am ready and willing to give to any constituency honest and enlightened enough to select me, and I declare at the same time it is the only one I will bind myself to maintain. I will, if returned to Parliament, pass one night with "the Casuals" below the gangway, and, if my experiences be not as graphically narrated as that of the writer in Pall Mall,' I can only affirm that they shall be told as loyally and truthfully. Imitating my distinguished prototype, I will endeavour to be pointed without personality; and though I may hint at gluttony, or glance at idleness, I will not stoop to particularise him who skulks the "crank," or takes more than his share of the skilly. It would be, I am certain, doing good service to the public to expose some of

these people. There are men there who share Bright's "blanket" tonight, and to-morrow night are fain to ask for a corner of Lord Stanley's "rug "who sip out of Gladstone's ladle to-day, and next day will entreat Disraeli to take their

turn at the crank. Ay, and when so ragged and tattered as to be a shame to be seen, they will tear up the good clothes they got on the Opposition benches, and insist upon a fresh suit of a new Whig pattern before they leave the House.

It has often been matter of astonishment to me that conjurors and sleight-of-hand folk have so little reluctance to explain all the mechanism by which they work their miracles, and are ever ready so to display to an admiring and bewildered public the secret threads and springs and hooks by which their skill was aided, and by whose agency they accomplished their marvellous feats. Besides the candour of this proceeding, there is an immense self-confidence in it. M. Houdin empties his tool-box on the table, but he knows well how useless the implements must be in other hands than his own! He tells indeed every step and incident of his performance, he shows you the few and very simple appliances of his address; but is there not in all this frankness a sense of conscious power that is almost boastful? Does he not say as plainly as words could say, "There is my magic-there my mystery; try now what you can do with them"? If he be ready to diminish the prestige of his art, it is that he may glorify himself. It is his pride to say, I have not one sense more than you are endowed with. Nature has given me no especial peculiarity of structure. My eye and my hand are very much like your own, and yet see what I can make of my faculties, and tell me if you can do anything similar?

If there be nothing more perfectly frank and above-board than the way these men show the secrets of their address, once that the trick is done, and the audience has been overwhelmed with amazement, so

is there no subtlety too much to employ in the concealment of the secret agency while the miracle is being worked, and while they hold the public on the tenter-hooks of an eager and intense expectancy.

M. Houdin tells us that one of the highest gifts of an accomplished conjuror is the power to distract the attention of his audience from the peculiar miracle in hand, and engage their interest on something totally remote from it. To this end, he says, very considerable conversational powers are occasionally directed, and an ingenious explanation, or an interesting anecdote, will often occupy public attention sufficiently long to enable the performer to perfect his delusion. Occasionally, he adds, all these are not enough, and more material aids are required. A detonating shot, or some explosive powder which causes a dense smoke, will often produce the required mystification, and give ample time besides to effect the trick.

As I laid down the volume of one of these gifted and most celebrated performers, I could not help asking myself, Has this man been really treating of his art, or is the whole exposition only a clever allegory on modern diplomacy Is, in a word, the prestidigitator a plenipotentiary

and are the bouquets, the seraphic music, and the batter-puddings in one's hat another name for the courtesies, the chansons, and the œufs cassés of the diplomatic art?

If it be not an allegory, the resemblance is absolutely marvellous. In each case we have the great artist. In each case is he seen work