1827.] Lettei on Affairs in general. 515 



the speaker's warrant issued forth with, and Mr. Jennings, being previously 

 gagged, was placed at the bar of the House, and desired to speak for him- 

 self. I wish all this formality had not been observed. It would have been 

 a spirit-stirring sight, as they say in the Catholic Association, to have wit- 

 nessed the dismay, which would have pervaded the House, at hearing a 

 speech addressed to it ex improviso, from the strangers' gallery. The 

 speaker's wig would have started in fright from his head, and have sought 

 refuge near the bulky pericranium of Mr. Wynne. Mr. Wynne would 

 have looked around him for a precedent to direct his conduct, and finding 

 none, would have fainted over the order book. Mr. Brougham would have 

 risen to peep into the gallery, and, discovering that Mr. Gourlay was not 

 the orator, would have speedily squatted down again to hide the compo- 

 sure of his feelings. Mr. Hume would have stopped short in his hundred 

 and sixty-seventh speech for the evening, ,and would have asked Reading 

 Monk what he meant by barking, more rapidly than usual, his little shrill, 

 snappish cry of *' hear, hear 5" Calls for order would have augmented the 

 disorder, and would have ultimately terminated in an explosion, terrible as 

 that which recently turned back the tide at Liverpool, shattered the Well 

 Tower at Lancaster, shook Skiddaw and Saddleback from their base, and, 

 as an ingenious professor of the art of sinking adds in the newspapers, broke 

 all the windows at Brougham Hall ! Mr. Jennings, in the mean time, 

 would have darted to the right and to the left the thunders of his elo- 

 quence, and would have been for the moment the admired of all beholders. 

 The pens of the reporters would have started from their inkstands to arrest, 

 of themselves, the passing glories of the scene ; and the newspapers of the 

 next day, filled with the fate, the folly, and the flourishes of Mr. Jennings, 

 would have obtained an extent of sale, which, at this period of financial 

 distress, would have gladdened the hearts of the commissioners of the 

 revenue, by the grateful God-send it would have added to the stamp 

 duties. 



I was once told by a " gentleman of the press," that an exhibition some- 

 thing like that, which I have ventured to describe, did actually take place 

 in the House of Commons. Any person, who is at all conversant with 

 the proceedings of that body, is aware, that a long pause sometimes 

 occurs, between the conclusion of private, and the commencement of pub- 

 lic, business. On one of these occasions, when a heavy debate was 

 expected, and the House was crowded, and a dead silence prevailed, and 

 every body was expecting to hear the name of " Mr. Pitt" issue from the 

 lips of the Speaker, a shrill voice was heard from the back rows of the 

 gallery, calling on Mr. Speaker for a song. Excessive was the consterna- 

 tion and laughter of the House. The Speaker called, but in vain, for 

 order,- and it was not till some minutes had elapsed, that directions could 

 be given to the Serjeant-at-arms to take the offender into custody. As 

 the serjcant entered the gallery to hunt him out, a reporter tapped a grave, 

 demure, quaker-like stockbroker, who was sitting before him, on the 

 shoulder, and said to him, half whispering, and half aloud, " a pretty 

 scrape you are in, Sir but you would not be advised and you must now 

 get out of it as you best can." The Serjeant drank in the sounds with 

 greedy ears pounced upon the unlucky stockbroker, thus clearly de- 

 nounced to him and, in spite of his affirmations of innocence, dragged 

 him, mighty loath, to the bar. The Charles Wynne of that day imme- 

 diately began to put the inquisitorial power of the House into operation 

 against him ; but a few questions soon convinced him that the party 



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