138 THE CITY AS IT WAS AND IS. 



their huge contentment, as they look once more on the things that 

 were. The very banquet, Sir, was suited to stern and manly tastes ; 

 but now 



THOMPSON. Well, Mr. Oliver, I would with all due deference 

 opine, that the condiments of festivity still prevail ; that a quantum 

 sufficit of apertures in heads are to be found within the walls for the 

 reception of food at the civic table ; that butchers survive, arid con- 

 fectioners are not wholly extinct ; that the state vehicle still wends its 

 sluggish way ; that sheriffs are part and parcel of humanity ; and the 

 lord mayor a mortal being of the male gender, with carnivorous,, 

 turtle-consuming, custard- sucking, oyster-devouring propensities ; 

 that 



OLIVER. Good ! good ! Thomson ; it may be so. It may be that 

 the mechanical part of the thing remains ; but let me tell you, Sir, 

 by the memory of Sir William Staines's bricklayer's trowel, that all 

 the rest is " leather and prunella." Where, Sir, is now the alderman 

 who, when his sovereign threatened to remove his court to punish 

 the obstropolous citizens of London, would reply, " I trust your 

 Majesty will leave us the Thames ?" Where a Beckford, to astound 

 the nerves of royalty ? Where a brewer like Harvey Christian 

 Combe, who refused a baronetcy ? Sir, it was exciting to see the 

 Prince of Wales I preserve the appellation, as redolent of grateful 

 reminiscences going to lunch with the worthy compounder of malt 

 and hops. None of your entre les deux repas, with a soupe and a 

 prise de tabac. No India tiffin, comprehending the fiery mullaga- 

 tawny, to stimulate the subdued ventricles of a saffron Hindoo ; but 

 an English lunch, Sir : steaks broiled on the fire of the brewery ; 

 potatoes roasted in its ashes ; all assuaged with triple X, and crowned 

 with a bottle of stout port. There was an English prince and an 

 English alderman for you ! Then were our families rich, and the 

 land was smiling ; then were our merchants honoured and respected, 

 as they were wealthy ; then did John Philip Kemble lead off a minuet 

 at the Mansion-house, while Louis XIV. might have hid his head 

 for very shame, at the grace and dignity of the accomplished histrion. 

 None of your gallopades, mazourkas, and polonaises, borrowed from 

 Sarmatian boors or Siberian savages. That was the age of ladies' 

 hoops and gentlemen's bag-wigs ! one pound notes ! church and 

 king ! 



THOMPSON. French invasion ! press-gangs ! Irish rebellions ! cor- 

 rupt elections ! pensions ! sinecures ! contracts ! constructive trea- 

 sons ! unlimited military service ! Catholic subjugation ! test and 

 corporation acts ! and colonial oppression ! You see, Oliver, I can 

 help a lame dog over the stile. No, no, Sir ; if we have inherited 

 the results of great political profligacy, and of unqualified and indis- 

 criminate expenditure, let us hope, that by the operation of reform, 

 the giant strength of the land will be displayed in all its proud propor- 

 tions ; and that, in spite of gallopades and the rest of it, we may yet 

 progress respectably. 



OLIVER. "Three blue beans in a blue bladder; rattle beans, 

 rattle bladder," as the bishop of Derry wrote it to the lord primate. 

 I shall scarcely take the trouble to refute you, Sir. You may regard 



