hat the King of Hanover
is engaged in a plot to dethrone our young Queen:" and the triumphant
secretary wished the worthy pair good morning.

"They certainly have a very good cry," said Taper mournfully.

"After all, the registration might be better," said Tadpole, "but still
it is a very good one."

The daily bulletins became more significant; the crisis was evidently
at hand. A dissolution of parliament at any time must occasion great
excitement; combined with a new reign, it inflames the passions of every
class of the community. Even the poor begin to hope; the old, wholesome
superstition still lingers, that the sovereign can exercise power; and
the suffering multitude are fain to believe that its remedial character
may be about to be revealed in their instance. As for the aristocracy
in a new reign, they are all in a flutter. A bewildering vision of
coronets, stars, and ribbons; smiles, and places at court; haunts their
noontide speculations and their midnight dreams. Then we must not forget
the numberless instances in which the coming event is deemed to supply
the long-sought opportunity of distinction, or the long-dreaded cause
of utter discomfiture; the hundreds, the thousands, who mean to get into
parliament, the units who dread getting out. What a crashing change from
lounging in St James's street to sauntering on Boulogne pier; or,
after dining at Brookes and supping at Crockford's, to be saved from
destruction by the friendly interposition that sends you in an official
capacity to the marsupial sympathies of Sydney or Swan River!

Now is the time for the men to come forward who have claims; claims for
spending their money, which nobody asked them to do, but which of course
they only did for the sake of the party. They never wrote for their
party, or spoke for their party, or gave their party any other vote than
their own; but they urge their claims,--to something; a commissionership
of anything, or a consulship anywhere; if no place to be had, they
are ready to take it out in dignities. They once looked to the privy
council, but would now be content with an hereditary honour; if they can
have neither, they will take a clerkship in the Treasury for a younger
son. Perhaps they may get that in time; at present they go away growling
with a gaugership; or, having with desperate dexterity at length
contrived to transform a tidewaiter into a landwaiter. But there is
nothing like asking--except refusing.

Hark!