At one time, in the run of the Parliament of 1859-65, Lord
Palmerston being Premier, a rumour shook the political world, affirming
the resignation of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Gladstone. The
newspapers were neither so alert nor so well informed in those days, and
the rumour drifted about, neither confirmed nor contradicted. At length,
Mr. Horsman could stand the uncertainty no longer, and from his place in
the House of Commons he asked Lord Palmerston whether there was any
truth in the report.

The Premier approached the table in his gravest manner, and the crowded
House was hushed in silence for the anticipated disclosure. He had, he
said, just come from a meeting of the Cabinet Council, and could not
pretend to be uninformed on the matter of the question submitted to him.
The House, however, knew how stringent was the oath of a Privy
Councillor, and how impossible it was for one in ordinary circumstances
either to affirm or deny a report current as to what had taken place
within its doors. Lord Palmerston was evidently struggling between a
desire to tell something and disinclination to tamper with his oath. As
his manner grew more embarrassed, the interest of the House was
quickened. All heads, including that of Mr. Horsman, were craned forward
as he went on to observe that, perhaps, in the peculiar circumstances of
the case, he would be justified in saying that, at the Council just
held, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had been present and had displayed
no sign of intended resignation.

"In fact," said Lord Palmerston, turning round to face Mr. Horsman,
seated at the corner bench below the Gangway, "_my right hon. friend has
had his ear at the keyhole of the wrong door_."

THE PARLIAMENTARY OLD GUARD.

I have received a sheaf of correspondence arising out of the article in
the February number, cataloguing the Old Guard who were in the House of
Commons twenty years ago and stand there to-day. One or two demand
acknowledgment as adding to the information there garnered. Mr. Thomas
Whitworth, of Liverpool, a member of the House of Commons from 1869 to
1874, has made independent investigation, with the result of adding
several to the names I gave. These are Sir Charles Dalrymple, Mr. Duff
(who has just retired from Parliament on his appointment to the
Governorship of New South Wales), Sir Julian Goldsmid, Sir John Hibbert,
Sir J. W. Pease, Mr. J. G. Talbot, Mr. Abel Smith, and Mr. James Round.
Mr. Whitw