swering Tierney's (Opposition) speech was undertaken by Mr. Peel, at that time Secretary for Ireland. He relied principally upon the determination expressed by the Duke of York to accept of no salary which should come from the privy purse, and upon the sacredness and inviolability which had hitherto been held to attach to that fund. When he mentioned Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Adam (now become Lord Chief Commissioner of the Scotch Jury Court) as two eminent Whig authorities who had been accustomed to preach this doctrine about the privy purse in its highest strain, the House, or at least the Opposition, testified by loud derisive cheers how it was disposed to account for the high monarchic principles on this point entertained or professed by these personal friends of the Prince of Wales. Mr. Peel, however, dextrously chose to understand the manifestation in a somewhat different sense. "If," he exclaimed, "what I have heard from the other side be meant as a cheer of derision at the name of Mr. Sheridan, I must say that I could not expect such an expression towards an individual who was one of the most able supporters the party from which it proceeded ever had the honour to possess, while he was, by universal confession, one of the greatest ornaments of whom that House and the British empire ever had reason to be proud."

PEEL'S LOVE OF TRUTH.

When, upon the death of Sir Robert Peel, the Duke of Wellington sought to express what seemed to him most admirable in the character of his friend, he said that he was the truest man he had ever known; adding "I was long connected with him in public life. We were both in the councils of our sovereign together, and I had long the honour to enjoy his private friendship. In all the course of my acquaintance with Sir Robert Peel, I never knew a man in whose truth and justice I had a more lively confidence, or in whom I saw a more invariable desire to promote the public service. In the whole course of my communication with him I never knew an instance in which he did not show the strongest attachment to truth; and I never saw, in the whole course of my life, the smallest reason for suspecting that he stated anything which he did not firmly believe to be the fact."

THISTLEWOOD, THE TRAITOR.

Southey relates this touching anecdote of the last hours of Thistlewood, the chief of the Cato-street conspirators of 1820:

"When the desperate and atrocious traitor Thistlewood was on the scaffold his demeanour was that of a man who was resolved!

boldly to meet the fate he had deserved in the few words which were exchanged between him and his fellow-criminals, he observed, that the grand question whether or not the soul was immortal would soon be solved for them. No expression of hope escaped him; no breathing of repentance, no spark of grace, appeared. Yet (it is a fact which, whether it be more consolatory or awful, ought to be known), on the night after the sentence, and preceding his execution, while he supposed that the person who was appointed to watch him in his cell was asleep, this miserable man was seen by that person repeatedly to rise upon his knees, and heard repeatedly calling upon Christ his Saviour to have mercy upon him, and to forgive him his sins."-The Doctor, chap. lxxi.

HOOD AND GRATTAN.

The celebrated altercation between these two patriots has rarely been equalled in virulence. Hood called Grattan " a mendicant patriot, who had sold his country for prompt payment;" and Grattan retorted on Hood as an ill-omened bird of prey, with broken beak and cadaverous aspect, &c. Hood's nose was disfigured, which occasioned the allusion to the broken beak.—Croker.

LAST MOMENTS OF GRATTAN.

At the end of May, 1820, Mr. Grattan came, for the last time, to London-in Baker-street. On the first day of the following June, Mr. Charles Butler called; and being informed that he was extremely ill, was retiring, without having seen him; but Mr. Grattan, having heard that he was in the house, sent for him. It was evident that he neared the moment of his dissolution;-but the ethereal vigour of his mind was unsubdued, and his zeal for the Catholic cause unabated. He pressed Mr. Butler by the hand: "It is," he said, "all over!-yes--all over!-but I will die in the cause,—I mean to be carried to the House of Commons to-morrow,-to beg leave of the Speaker to take the oaths sitting,-and then to move two resolutions." These he mentioned to Mr. Butler; but spoke so indistinctly that Mr. B. could only perceive generally that they were substantially the same as the clauses which he had prefixed to the Bill, which, in 1812, he brought into Parliament for the relief of the Catholics. He again pressed Mr. Butler by the hand, repeated the intention of being carried to the House, and desired Mr. B. to attend him to sit,-but Grattan died in the ensuing night.

Lord Brougham, in characterizing the oratorial genius of Grattan, says that "Dante himself never conjured up a striking, a pathetic, and an appropriate image in fewer words than Mr. Grattan employed

to describe his relation towards Irish independence, when, alluding to its rise in 1782, and its fall twenty years later, he said: 'I sat by its cradle-I followed its hearse.'

THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY.

During the debate on Sir Robert Peel's tariff, the admission of asses duty free caused much merriment. Lord Twho had just read Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, remarked that the House had, he supposed, passed the donkey clause out of respect to its ancestors. "It is a wise measure," said a popular novelist, especially as it affects the importation of food; for, should a scarcity come, we should otherwise have to fall back on the food of our forefathers." "And pray what is that," asked an archeologist. "Thistles,” replied Lord T——.—Family Jo. Miller.

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"PROSPERITY ROBINSON AND THE PANIC OF 1825.

Cobbett gave this memorable sobriquet to the Right Hon. F. J. Robinson, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, in 1825, boasted in Parliament of an expanded circulation exceeding by nearly 50 per cent. the amount in 1823. This was the era of "Prosperity Robinson" (afterwards first Earl of Ripon), who boasted of " dispensing the blessings of civilization from the portals of ancient monarchy." In the King's speech of 1825, his Majesty said: "There never was a period in the history of the country when all the great interests of society were at the same time in so thriving a condition." But the sunshine was succeeded by the murkiest of gloom-" the Panic of 1825," when one-eighth of the country banks were ruined, and six of the London banks stopped payment; and the two years' increase in the circulating medium was annihilated in a few weeks.

The panacea was the issue of one-pound Bank of England notes, which is stated to have originated as follows:

"The incidental mention to one of the Directors that there was a box of one-pound notes ready for issue, turned the attention of the authorities to the propriety of attempting to circulate them; and the declaration of Mr. Henry Thornton, in 1797, probably occurred, that it was the want of small change, not a necessity for gold, that was felt; and as the pressure on the country banks arose from the holders of the small notes, it was suggested to the Government that the public might, perhaps, receive one-pound notes in place of sovereigns. The Government approved of the idea, and the panic was at its height, when, on Saturday, the 17th of December, the Bank closed its doors with only 1,027,000l. in its cellars. (In the pamphlet published by Lord Ashburton is the following remarkable

paragraph. After saying "I was called into counsel with the late Lord Liverpool, Mr. Huskisson, and the Governor of the Bank," his Lordship proceeds: "The gold of the Bank was drained to within a very few thousand pounds; for although the published returns showed a result rather less scandalous, a certain Saturday night closed with nothing worth mentioning remaining.") It has been frequently stated, that by a mere accident the box of one-pound notes was discovered. But such was not the case. A witness stated that "he did not recollect that there were any one-pound notes; they were put by; it was the casual observation that there were such things in the house, which suggested to the directors that it would be possible to use them." Application was made to the Government for permission to issue them; and this was granted, subject to certain stipulations.

MONEY PANIC OF 1832.

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Panics have been produced sometimes by extraordinary means. Thus, in May, 1832, a run upon the Bank of England" was produced by the walls of London being placarded with the emphatic words, "To stop the Duke, go for gold;" advice which was followed, as soon as given, to a prodigious extent. The Duke of Wellington was then very unpopular; and on Monday, the 14th of May, it being currently believed that the Duke had formed a cabinet, the panic became universal, and the run upon the Bank of England for coin was so incessant, that in a few hours upwards of half a million was carried off. Mr. Doubleday, in his Life of Sir Robert Peel," states it to be well known that the above placards were "the device of four gentlemen, two of whom were elected members of the reformed Parliament. Each put down 207.; and the sum thus clubbed was expended in printing thousands of these terrible missives, which were eagerly circulated, and very speedily seen upon every wall in London. The effect is hardly to be described. It was electric."

MINISTERS RESIGNING.

When, in May, 1833, the Lord-Advocate (Jeffrey) called upon Lord Althorp to ask what he should do about his resignation, his reception was as follows. Lord Althorp's secretary could not give him any information, and Lord A- desired he would walk upstairs. Up Jeffrey walked. Lord A-- had just done washing, and one arm was bare above the elbow, and rather hairy. His razor was in the other, and he was about to shave. "Well, Mr. Advocate," said his Lordship, "I have the pleasure to inform you that we are no longer His Majesty's Ministers. We sent in our

resignations, and they are accepted." When they returned, Jeffrey called again. Lord A-- was looking over his fowling-piece, and said to Jeffrey, "Confound these political affairs; all my locks are got out of order," in his usual grumbling, lazy way. This graphic account is told by Haydon, who received it from Lord Jeffrey.

PROFOUND INVESTIGATION.

In 1833, M. Thiers made a ten days' journey in England, and pledged himself to Louis Philippe to learn in that time all that was worth knowing of the politics, commerce, revenues, religion, arts, sciences, and social economy of this nation. While here he wrote to a gentleman connected with the Treasury the following note: My dear Sir,-Would you give me a short quarter of an hour, to explain to me the financial system of your country? Always yours, T."

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THE MINISTERIAL FISH DINNER.

Every year, the approach of the close of the Parliamentary Session is indicated by what is termed "the Ministerial Fish Dinner," in which Whitebait forms a prominent dish; and Cabinet Ministers are the company. The Dinner takes place at a principal tavern, usually at Greenwich, but sometimes at Blackwall: the dining-room is decorated for the occasion, which partakes of a state entertainment. Formerly, however, the Ministers went down the river from Whitehall in an Ordnance gilt barge: now, a Government steamer is employed. The origin of this annual festivity is told as follows. On the banks of Dagenham Lake or Reach, in Essex, many years since, there stood a cottage, occupied by a princely merchant named Preston, a baronet of Scotland and Nova Scotia, and sometime M.P. for Dover. He called it his "fishing cottage," and often in the spring he went thither, with a friend or two, as a relief to the toils of parliamentary and mercantile duties. His most frequent guest was the Rt. Hon. George Rose, Secretary of the Treasury, and an Elder Brother of the Trinity House. Many a day did these two worthies enjoy at Dagenham Reach; and Mr. Rose once intimated to Sir Robert, that Mr. Pitt, of whose friendship they were both justly proud, would, no doubt, delight in the comfort of such a retreat. A day was named, and the Premier was invited; and he was so well pleased with his reception at the "fishing cottage"they were all two if not three bottle men-that, on taking leave, Mr. Pitt readily accepted an invitation for the following year. For a few years, the Premier continued a visitor, always accompanied by Mr. George Rose. But the distance was considerable; the going and coming were somewhat inconvenient for the First Minister of the