MEETING OF THE DELEGATES. 493 



tion. It is very likely that he will be enabled to finish there his 

 story of the volunteers. 



The advertisement has again appeared in the morning papers. 

 Whether it will be productive of any beneficial result, we of course 

 are unable to foretell. If it should, we may, perhaps, at no distant 

 period, return to Mrs. Tibbs and her ' ' Boarding-House." 



THE MEETING OF THE DELEGATES. 



(TRANSLATED FROM THE MS. OF AN UNIONIST.) 



DURING the raging fever of political unions, which came into 

 England some time ago with the cholera, I caught the disorder, and 

 became a member, among many hundreds, equally careless and igno- 

 rant with myself. All that I could ever clearly understand was, that 

 we had to pay sixpence a month, which was called the " musket- 

 . fund," and was reserved for purchasing muskets, with which we were 

 to shoot king, lords, and commons ; considering every man as a com- 

 mon enemy who possessed more wealth or property than ourselves. 

 We had committees, orators, secretaries, chairmen, and pennyless 

 treasurers, who never met upon business without swallowing a 

 musket, or the worth of one, and reducing the fund a musket less ; 

 for no business would they transact unless we allowed them two 

 quarts of ale and six papers of tobacco per man, besides bread, cheese, 

 and onions. We also took in every paper which spoke favourably of 

 political unions, no matter how short the paragraph ; but if they ever 

 dared to dictate, or advise, or reason with us, the editors were in- 

 stantly marked down as rank tyrants, and an order sent to every 

 unionist to throw up that paper. One evening, when our honourable 

 committee were all drunk, having applied themselves diligently, to 

 the glass, and smoking business and the affairs of the country, for six 

 hours, it pleased them in their barley-corn-inspired wisdom, to de- 

 legate me, along with five others, to open another branch of the union 

 at the small quiet village of Chillwell. Large posting bills were 

 printed early the next morning, and posted upon almost every cot- 

 tage and barn-door in the village; the contents read thus: 



" ' UNION is STRENGTH KNOWLEDGE is POWER/ 



" Countrymen if you love LIBERTY, attend to-morrow evening at the 

 Sheep's Head, when several Gentlemen from Leicester will honour you 

 with their Company, and show you that you are SLAVES. They will also 

 receive entrance money, enrol names, and open No. 27, of the Leicester 

 Political Union. Pro Bono Publico." 



About dusk the Six Gentlemen delegates, namely, two stocking- 

 weavers, with coat elbows out ; an old shoemaker, hat crown staved 

 in, the brim flapping on his cheek; and a broken-down player, shoe- 

 sole fastened with a string, which came round his instep to prevent 

 separation, while something of a dirty white colour hung dangling 



