he had it in his power. 'Go your ways,' said he, and seek your reward elsewhere.' The man was soon after taken into the Secretary of State's office."-Newton, Life and Anecdotes, prefixed to his Works.

66 TOTTENHAM IN HIS BOOTS."

This sobriquet was acquired by Charles Tottenham, Esq., of Tottenham Green, Co. Wexford, and a Member of the Irish Parliament, under the following circumstances: The Members of the House of Commons formerly attended in full dress, an arrangement first broken through as follows. A very important constitutional question was debating between Government and the Opposition, namely, as to the application of a sum of 60,000l., then lying unappropriated in the Irish treasury. The numbers seemed to be nearly poised; it had been supposed that the majority would be inclined to give it to the King, while the Opposition would recommend laying it out upon the country; when the sergeant-at-arms reported that a Member wanted to force himself into the House undressed, in dirty boots, and splashed up to his shoulders. The Speaker could not oppose custom to privilege, and was necessitated to admit him. It proved to be Mr. Tottenham, covered with mud, and wearing a pair of huge jack-boots. Hearing that the question was likely to come on sooner than he had expected, he had, lest he should not be in time, mounted his horse at Tottenham Green, set off in the night, ridden nearly sixty miles up to the Parliament House direct, and rushed in, without washing or changing himself, to vote for the country. He arrived just at the critical moment, and his casting-vote gave a majority of one to the country party.

This incident could not die while the Irish Parliament lived, and "Tottenham in his Boots" remained to a very late period a standing toast at certain patriotic Irish tables. It should be added, that by an order of the Parliament, all members were to appear in the House in full court dress, under a penalty of 5007.; which fine Mr. Tottenham having incurred, had to pay: he was the last who did so, for his bold conduct put an end to its further exaction.

Soon after the affair, a portrait of the hon. member was painted by Stephens, and engraved by A. Millar, in the attitude of ascending the steps of the Parliament House, in Dublin, in his travelling dress -in his boots. This picture is in the possession of the head of the house of Tottenham, the Marquis of Ely.

BOYLE ROCHE'S BULLS.

Sir Boyle Roche, the Irish member, excelled in bulls. "I wish," said he, one day, when opposing an anti-ministerial motion, "I

wish, Mr. Speaker, this motion at the bottom of the bottomless pit." At another time, in relation to English connexion, he observed,"England, it must be allowed, is the mother-country, and therefore I advise them (England and Ireland) to live in filial affection together, like sisters as they are and ought to be." A question of smuggling practices in the Shannon being under consideration, "I would," said Sir Boyle, "have two frigates stationed on the opposite points of the mouth of the river, and there they should remain fixed, with strict orders not to stir; and so, by cruising and cruising about, they would be able to intercept everything that should attempt to pass between."

A DROVE OF BULLS.

In a debate on the Leather Tax, in 1795, in the Irish House of Commons, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Plunkett, observed, with great emphasis, "That in the prosecution of the present war, every man ought to give his last guinea to protect the remainder." Mr. Vandeleur said, "However that might be, the tax on leather would be severely felt by the barefooted peasantry of Ireland." To which Sir Boyle Roche replied, that "This could be easily remedied by making the underleathers of wood."

A KING'S SPEECH.

When George the Second, in his Speech, told his Parliament his reason for dissolving it was its being so near dissolution, Lord Cornbury said it put him in mind of a gaoler in Oxfordshire who was remarkably humane to his prisoners: one day he said to one of them, "My good friend, you know you are to be hanged on Friday se'night; I want extremely to go to London; would you be so kind as to be hanged next Friday ?"

A MINISTERIAL REPROOF.

On one of the many occasions when the implacable hatred of the House of Brunswick towards that of Brandenburg broke out, Sir Robert Walpole said to George the Second, "Will your Majesty engage in an enterprise which must prove both disgraceful and disadvantageous? Why, Hanover will be no more than a breakfast to the Prussian army."

TALKING POLITICS.

As politics spoil conversation, Walpole once proposed that everybody should forfeit half-a-crown who said anything tending to introduce the idea either of Ministers or Opposition. Upon this Hannah More, who was present, added that whoever mentioned pit

coal, or a fox-skin muff, should be considered as guilty; and it was accordingly voted.

INVASION PANIC.

When, in 1756, the Duke of Newcastle expected the French every hour, one night he was terribly alarmed: on his table he found a mysterious card with only these words: "Charles is very well, and is expected in England every day." It was plainly some secret friend that advertised him of the Pretender's approaching arrival. He called up all the servants, ransacked the whole house to know who had been in his dressing-room :-at last it came out to be an answer from the Duchess of Queensbury to the Duchess of Newcastle about Lord Charles Douglas.

NARROW ESCAPE.

When, in 1759, there was a successful debate in the House of Commons on the Bill for fixing the augmentation of the salaries of the Judges, Charles Townshend said, the book of Judges was saved by the book of Numbers.

PERUQUIERS' PETITION.

On the 11th of February, 1765, a petition was presented to King George III., by the master peruke-makers of the metropolis, setting forth the distresses of themselves, and an incredible number of others dependent on them, from the almost universal decline of their trade, in consequence of gentlemen so generally beginning to wear their own hair. What business remained to their profession was, they said, nearly altogether taken from them by French artists. They had a further ground of complaint in their being obliged to work on Sunday, which they would much rather have spent in their religious duties, learning "to fear God and honour the King" -(a bit of flattery). Under these circumstances, the distressed peruke-makers prayed his Majesty for means of relief. The King, though he must have scarcely been able to maintain his gravity, returned a gracious answer. But the public, albeit but little converted from the old views regarding the need of protection to industry, had the sense to see the ludicrous side of the petition, and some one quickly regaled them by publishing a petition from the Body Carpenters, imploring his Majesty to wear a wooden leg, and to enjoin all his servants to appear in the royal presence with the same graceful decoration.

CARLTON-HOUSE INTRIGUE.

Lord Bute is known to have enjoyed a higher place in the Princess Dowager of Wales's favour, if not in her affection, than seemed

compatible with strict propriety. His visits to Carlton House were always performed in the evening, when he commonly made use of the chair and chairmen of Miss Vansittart, a lady of the Princess's household. The curtains of the chair were closely drawn to conceal the arrival, though this may have been done from apprehension of insult from the populace, for Lord Bute was very unpopular. Miss Chudleigh, then maid-of-honour at Carlton House, made a smart repartee upon these visits: when reproached by her royal mistress for the irregularities of her conduct, she replied, "Votre Altesse Royale sait que chacun a son But.”

As George III. was accustomed to repair frequently, in the evening, to Carlton House, and there pass a considerable time, the world supposed that the Sovereign, his mother, and the ex-minister met in order to concert and to compare their views; thus forming a sort of interior Cabinet, which controlled and directed the ostensible Administration.

LEVEE HUMOURS.

Lord Bute's first levee was crowded. Bothmar, the Danish minister, said, "La chaleur est excessive!" George Selwyn replied, "Pour se mettre au froid, il faut aller chez Monsieur le Duc de Newcastle!" There was another George not quite so tender. George Brudenel was passing by: somebody in the mob said, "What is the matter here?" Brudenel answered, "Why, there is a Scotchman got into the Treasury, and they can't get him out."

POLITICAL CONFIDENCE.

When the Ministry of 1766 sought the confidence of Lord Chatham, he replied, their characters were fair enough, and he was always glad to see such persons engaged in the public service; but, turning to them with a smile, very courteous, but not very respectful, he said"Confide in you? oh, no-you must pardon me, gentlemen-youth is the season of credulity-confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom."

LITTLE CAUSE AND GREAT EFFECT.

When, in 1772, negotiations for peace between the Russians and the Turks were in progress, the Empress ordered Count Orloff, her negotiator, confident Minister, and paramount gallant, to accord all that she could with any reason concede, but not to mention the surrender of the Crimea till the last moment, in hopes that, rather than lose all she was willing to give up, they would yield that country. In the meantime she had fallen in love with a lieutenant of her guards, and preferred him rapidly. Orloff, getting intelligence

of this new favourite, was so impatient to get rid of him, that, without opening on the other points, he abruptly made the demand of the Crimea; was refused; broke off the treaty, and getting into a postchaise, disguised like a courier, hurried back to St. Petersburg, announced the rupture of the negotiation, was disgraced, and saw his rival remain in possession. Thus, the Empress and her loverminister's impetuosity prevented the conclusion of so destructive a war, and was a new instance of what little passions influence the fate of kingdoms.

LORD CHATHAM'S CHARLATANERIE.

Some of Lord Chatham's sallies are examples of an approach made to the ludicrous by the sublime, as in the following instance. It is related that in the House of Commons, (when Mr. Pitt,) he began a speech with the words "Sugar, Mr. Speaker," and then, observing a smile to pervade the audience, he paused, looked fiercely around, and with a loud voice, rising in its notes, and swelling into vehement anger, he is said to have pronounced the word "Sugar!" three times, and having thus quelled the house, and extinguished every appearance of levity or laughter, turned round and disdainfully asked, "Who will laugh now?" Lord Brougham has well referred to this incident as an instance of the extraordinary power of Chatham's manner, and the reach of his audacity in trusting to those powers.

Lord Chatham (when Mr. Pitt) on some occasion made a very long and able speech in the Privy Council, relative to some naval matter. Every one present was struck by the force of his eloquence. Lord Anson, who was no orator, being then at the head of the Admiralty, and differing entirely in opinion from Mr. Pitt, got up, and only said these words," My Lords, Mr. Secretary is very eloquent, and has stated his own opinion very plausibly. I am no orator, and all I shall say is, that he knows nothing at all of what he has been talking about." This short reply, together with the confidence the Council had in Lord Anson's professional skill, had such an effect on every one present, that they immediately determined against Mr. Pitt's proposition.

LORD CHATHAM'S WAR PREDICTION.

The probability, indeed certainty, of England being sooner or later engaged in a war with France, consequent on her unfortunate dissensions with her revolted colonies in America, had been insisted upon by Lord Chatham in the House of Lords, as early as in the month of May preceding. "The French Court," said he, are too wise to lose the opportunity of separating America from Great