rd Railton against his erring son. I told him of Rupert's illness, of
our having proceeded to Bath in company--of his recovery--his meeting
with Elinor--her beauty--his devotion. I pleaded his youth, his ardent
nature--referred to the past as irretrievable, to the future as full of
happiness for Mr Sinclair, provided his lordship would look with
forgiving kindness upon his act; and used all the eloquence I could
command to move what I conceived to be at least a heart of flesh to pity
and sympathy for its own blood and offspring.

Lord Railton heard me to the end, with a knitted brow and closed lips.
When I had finished, he asked me sternly if I had any thing more to say.

"Nothing," I replied.

Whereupon his lordship rang the bell.

The valet again appeared.

Lord Railton again held out his finger, as at our meeting. I was about
to take it, when his lordship moved it quickly--pointed to the door--and
said--"Show that person out!"

For a second I stood astounded and confused. In another second I found
myself breathing on the sunny side of Grosvenor Square. How I reached
it, I no longer remember.

THE PEOPLE.[72]

Mr Cobden, in the House of Commons, has given us a definition of the
term which heads this article:--THE PEOPLE _are the inhabitants of
towns_. "I beg to tell the honourable member for Limerick," said the
arch-leaguer, a few evenings since, "and the noble lord, the member for
Lynn, and the two hundred and forty members who sit behind him, that
there are other parties to be consulted with regard to their
proposition--that there are THE PEOPLE; I don't mean the country party,
but the people living in the towns, and who will govern this country."

"What is the city," says Shakspeare, "but the People?"----"True, the
people are the city."

Against Mr Cobden we pit Mr D'Israeli, who defines the people to be the
country gentlemen. Against Shakspeare, we bring M. Michelet, who, in an
affectionate dedication of his latest work to his fellow-labourer and
friend, M. Edgar Quinet, modestly acquaints the said M. Edgar, that THE
PEOPLE are neither more nor less than the author of the book and the
gentlemen to whom it is inscribed:--

"Recevez-le donc, ce livre du Peuple, parce qu'il est vous, parce qu'il
est moi. Par vos origines militaires, par la mienne, industrielle, nous
representons nous-memes, autant que d'autres peut-etre, les deux faces
modernes du Peuple, et son recent avenement."

There is, in