. Open the gates--pass out, gentlemen
highwaymen. Don't be afraid, good people of Cork, these are infernal
ruffians, they'll all be back again before six months. It's no
consequence to me to see you at large, for I have the heartfelt
conviction that most of you must be hanged yet."

[Illustration]

Here is the true defence of the viceroy, here the real and
well-grounded explanation of his conduct; and I hope when Lord
Brougham attacks his noble friend--which of course he will--that the
marquis will hurl back on him, with proud triumph, this irresistible
mark of his united foresight and benevolence.

A NUT FOR "HER MAJESTY'S SERVANTS."

If a fair estimate were at any moment to be taken of the time employed
in the real business of the country, and that consumed by public
characters in vindicating their conduct, recapitulating their good
intentions, and glossing over their bad acts, it would be found that
the former was to the latter as the ratio of Falstaff's bread to the
"sack."

A British House of Commons is in fact nineteen out of every twenty
hours employed in the pleasant personalities of attack and defence. It
is something that the "noble baron" said last session, or the "right
hon. baronet" didn't say in the present one, engrosses all their
attention; and the most animated debates are about certain expressions
of some "honourable and learned gentleman," who always uses his words
in a sense different from the rest of the nation.

If this satisfies the public and stuffs the newspapers, perhaps I
should not repine at it; but certainly it is very fatiguing and
tiresome to any man with a moderately good memory to preserve the
excellent traditions each ministry retains of their own virtues, and
how eloquently the opposition can hold forth upon the various good
things they would have done, had they been left quietly on the
treasury benches. Now how much better and more business-like would it
be if, instead of leaving these gentlemen to dilate and expatiate on
their own excellent qualities, some public standards were to be
established, by which at a glance the world at large could decide on
their merits and examine into their fitness for office at a future
period. Your butler and your coachman, when leaving your service, do
not present themselves to a new master with characters of their own
inditing, or if they did they would unquestionably require a very
rigid scrutiny. What would you say if a cook who pro