1632.] Affairs in General 473 



at hearing that the French officers had caused an air to liberty" to be 

 sung in the theatre. 



A meeting of the Apostolic Junta has been held at Madrid, which 

 resolved, with the concurrence of the King, that as the restoration of 

 the constitutional system in Spain must inevitably follow the success of 

 Don Pedro in Portugal, it was essential for the protection of the throne 

 and the Clergy that assistance should be given to Don Miguel. The 

 army of observation, stationed on the frontiers, have therefore received 

 orders to march into Portugal at the summons of the Usurper. We 

 shall be glad to see something like a good struggle take place. We 

 have no doubt that Spain will follow so near and so excellent an exam- 

 ple ; and that the land of poetry, beauty, and romance will ultimately 

 succeed in throwing off the burthen of priestcraft and despotism which 

 has so long pressed upon its energies, destroying one of the finest 

 kingdoms in Europe, and weighing its people to the earth with poverty, 

 degradation, and shame. 



Lord Londonderry, having grown tired of his nightly wrestling with 

 the English Lord Chancellor, is obliged to put up with a mere Irish 

 one. When he is wearied of Lord Plunkett, he will probably take to 

 the Lord Advocate of Scotland. And having again exhausted himself, 

 will look about for a Welch antagonist. In the struggle with Plunkett,, 

 the Marquis certainly received several mortal wounds to his vanity ; 

 but it must be admitted of the Irish Chancellor, that he was rather bent 

 upon giving blows than avoiding them. Having given the Marquis 

 satisfaction, Lord Plunkett might have " explained," as the parliamen- 

 tary phrase is. The passage-of-arms was a ' f passage that led to nd- 



POLITICAL PHRASEOLOGY. Colonel Sibthorpe is, beyond all compa- 

 rison, the most unfortunate member that the unreformed parliament has 

 yet to boast of. In the first place his amendments are invariably re- 

 jected,- and in the next, they have the singular misfortune, which is 

 probably one among many causes of their failure, of being supported by 

 Mr. Kearsley. There is a peculiar beauty in the epithets selected by 

 the honourable house for its ordinary uses ; but upon any unusual occa- 

 sion, they rise into poetry. In a recent instance, Mr. Kearsley carried 

 the Parnassian practices of parliament to an almost unprecedented degree 

 of perfection. He exhausted the world of the English language, and 

 then imagined new. The bill was, in his estimation, an iniquitous, 

 " damnable, and pick-pocketing bill." The term, pick-pocketing, is 

 one that enters, in a very particular sense, into the parliamentary voca- 

 bulary ; but Mr. Kearsley applies it in a way quite different from that 

 in which it will be understood by the people. When a measure is in- 

 troduced to effect the transfer of money from the pockets of those who 

 want it, to those who do not, the term legislation is substituted for the 

 obnoxious one ; but when a borough is to be abolished, it is not legisla- 

 tion, but political pick-pocketing. 



b^dac*-. 



