rank exempted them from.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 458. See
_ante_, iii. 41.

[909] No doubt Mr. Langton.

[910] Dr. Sheridan tells how Swift overheard a Captain Hamilton say to a
gentleman at whose house he had arrived 'that he was very sorry he had
chosen that time for his visit. "Why so?" "Because I hear Dean Swift is
with you. He is a great scholar, a wit; a plain country squire will have
but a bad time of it in his company, and I don't like to be laughed at."
Swift then stepped up and said, "Pray, Captain Hamilton, do you know how
to say _yes_ or _no_ properly?" "Yes, I think I have understanding
enough for that." "Then give me your hand--depend upon it, you and I
will agree very well."' 'The Captain told me,' continues Sheridan, 'that
he never passed two months so pleasantly in his life.' Swift's _Works_,
ed. 1803, ii. 104.

[911] Gibbon wrote on Feb. 21, 1772 (_Misc. Works_, ii. 78):--'To day
the House of Commons was employed in a very odd way. Tommy Townshend
moved that the sermon of Dr. Nowell, who preached before the House on
the 30th of January (_id est_, before the Speaker and four members),
should be burnt by the common hangman, as containing arbitrary, Tory,
high-flown doctrines. The House was nearly agreeing to the motion, till
they recollected that they had already thanked the preacher for his
excellent discourse, and ordered it to be printed.'

[912]

'Although it be not _shined_ upon.'
_Hudibras_, iii. 2, 175.

[913] According to Mr. Croker, this was the Rev. Henry Bate, of the
_Morning Post_, who in 1784 took the name of Dudley, was created a
baronet in 1815, and died in 1824. Horace Walpole wrote on Nov. 13, 1776
(_Letters_, vi. 39l):--'Yesterday I heard drums and trumpets in
Piccadilly: I looked out of the window and saw a procession with
streamers flying. At first I thought it a press-gang, but seeing the
corps so well-drest, like Hussars, in yellow with blue waistcoats and
breeches, and high caps, I concluded it was some new body of our allies,
or a regiment newly raised, and with new regimentals for distinction. I
was not totally mistaken, for the Colonel is _a new ally_. In short,
this was a procession set forth by Mr. Bate, Lord Lyttelton's chaplain,
and author of the old _Morning Post_, and meant as an appeal to the town
against his antagonist, the new one.' In June, 1781, Bate was sentenced
to a year's imprisonment 'for an atrocious libel on the Duke of
Richmond. He