rding to rule, went at once to the clerks' office. There it was
pretended that the writ of his re-election had not yet been received,
and that it must first be procured from the Crown Office, in Chancery
Lane. Awaiting the return of the messenger, ostensibly despatched for
this purpose, he again entered the House, and there he was found, at a
few minutes before four, by Mr. Jones, the marshal, who, on receiving
the information sent to him, had hurried up, with a Bow Street runner
and some tipstaves. The runner, walking up to Lord Cochrane and
touching him on the shoulder, bluntly claimed him as his prisoner.
Lord Cochrane asked by what authority he dared to arrest a Member of
Parliament in the House of Commons. "My lord," answered the man, "my
authority is the public proclamation of the Marshal of the King's
Bench Prison, offering a reward for your apprehension." Lord Cochrane
declared that he neither acknowledged, nor would yield to, any
such authority, that he was there to resume his seat as one of the
representatives of the City of Westminster, and that any who dared to
touch him would do so at their peril. Two tipstaves thereupon rudely
seized him by the arms. He again cautioned them that the Marshal of
the King's Bench had no authority within those walls, and that their
conduct was altogether illegal. The answer was that he had better
go quietly; his reply that he would not go at all. Other officers,
however, came up. After a short struggle, he was overpowered, and, on
his refusing to walk, he was carried out of the House on the shoulders
of the tipstaves and constables.

There was a halt, however, in this disgraceful march. The Bow Street
runner expressed a fear that Lord Cochrane had firearms concealed
under his clothes, and he was accordingly taken into one of the
committee-rooms to be searched. Nothing more dangerous was found about
him than a packet of snuff. "If I had thought of that before," said
Lord Cochrane, not quite wisely, "you should have had it in your
eyes!" On this incident was founded a foolish story, to be told next
day, amid a score of exaggerations and falsehoods, in the Government
newspapers. "Being asked why he had provided himself with such a
quantity of snuff," we there read, "he said he had bought a canister
for the purpose of throwing it in the eyes of those who might attempt
to secure him, unless the opposing force should be too strong for
resistance, observing that he had found the use