pray every morning
for the renewal of that friendship when the chaplain begged the Lord to
guide the Legislature into the paths of truth; and the Honourable Brush
Bascom wore an air of resignation which was painful to see. Conversation
languished, and the cosey and familiar haunts of the Pelican knew Mr.
Crewe no more.

Mr. Crewe never forgot, of course, that he was a gentleman, and a
certain polite intercourse existed. During the sessions, as a matter
of fact, Mr. Bascom had many things to whisper to Mr. Botcher, and Mr.
Butcher to Mr. Bascom, and in order to facilitate this Mr. Crewe changed
seats with the Honourable Jacob. Neither was our hero a man to neglect,
on account of strained relations, to insist upon his rights. His eyes
were open now, and he saw men and things political as they were; he knew
that his bills for the emancipation of the State were prisoners in
the maw of the dragon, and not likely to see the light of law. Not
a legislative day passed that he did not demand, with a firmness and
restraint which did him infinite credit, that Mr. Bascom's and Mr.
Butcher's committees report those bills to the House either favourably
or unfavourably. And we must do exact justice, likewise, to Messrs.
Bascom and Butcher; they, too, incited perhaps thereto by Mr. Crewe's
example, answered courteously that the very excellent bills in question
were of such weight and importance as not to be decided on lightly,
and that there were necessary State expenditures which had first to be
passed upon. Mr. Speaker Doby, with all the will in the world, could
do nothing: and on such occasions (Mr. Crewe could see) Mr. Doby bore
a striking resemblance to the picture of the mockturtle in "Alice m
Wonderland"--a fact which had been pointed out by Miss Victoria Flint.
In truth, all three of these gentlemen wore, when questioned, such a
sorrowful and injured air as would have deceived a more experienced
politician than the new member from Leith. The will to oblige was
infinite.

There was no doubt about the fact that the session was rapidly drawing
to a close; and likewise that the committees guided by the Honourables
Jacob Butcher and Brush Bascom, composed of members carefully picked by
that judge of mankind, Mr. Doby, were wrestling day and night (behind
closed doors) with the intellectual problems presented by the bills
of the member from Leith. It is not to be supposed that a man of Mr.
Crewe's shrewdness would rest at the word