432 The Club Room. [APRIL, 



Shilelah. Capital ! Bravo, it does honour to the declining brains and 

 remorseless throat of one of our best poetasters, singing his own strains. 

 You see, Gentlemen, a man may be good for something though he lives 

 in fear of his wife. But, for Heaven's sake, no more politics. Can 

 any one tell me the meaning of this purchase of mine, not half an 

 hour old, from McLean's ; and masterly in style, colouring, and con- 

 ception ; the very touch of Lawrence, with the very tints of Titian ? 

 I borrowed that last flourish from my friend Frankland Lewis's in- 

 auguration speech to the clerks in the Navy Treasurer's office. (Shewing 

 a caricature.} 



Megrim. It is exactly what I like ; excessively clever, and prodigi- 

 ously impudent. Pray, my Lord Marquis, will you condescend to 

 explain first, the title A Political Reflexion. Aye, I see, a figure 

 looking in a mirror that " shews the age its very form and pressure." 

 But who is the figure ? A soldier of rank, I presume, from the super- 

 fluity of sash and lace about his person. He is holding a crown over 

 his head, and examining, in the glass, how far it might become him. The 

 countenance is long, rigid, and hook-nosed ; the expression a mixture 

 of fright and fierceness, full of evident eagerness to make the experi- 

 ment of wearing the " baby circle," yet with a keen retrospective 

 glance, as to the effect which it might have on the personages in the 

 room. Whom do you conceive that red-coated personage to be ? 



Shilelah. Can't possibly tell ; except it be meant for the Attorney 

 General. It might do for Lawyer Scarlet I 



Sir Ronald. The name is just the thing for an administration of our 

 cloth. Since the Premier could not make one of his drummers or 

 aides-de-camp barristers at the word of command, he was delighted to 

 find a name that might so far console him for the thing. But the other 

 figures, my Lord Friezland, can you find them out ? 



Friezland. To tell you the truth, I always find out problems best, 

 after they have been found out by somebody else. For these sixty 

 good years I have enjoyed an easy life and a fair reputation, by never 

 taking the trouble to have either an idea or a will of my own. In 

 party I have been a Jacobin, because to scoff at every thing, saves all 

 the inconvenience of inquiring into the merits of any. I have said, 

 " No," to all the measures of races of ministers, as different in their 

 politics as Richelieu from Robespierre, for words of one syllable are to 

 politicians what they are to children, the best employment for those 

 who cannot manage more : and I confess that my capacity never 

 amounted to the safe use of two syllables together. Yet, by the help 

 of a good table, a tolerable memory, and an indefatigable common-place 

 book, I have passed muster among the " Illuminati" of my time ; and 

 if I am called a goose by some, and a mule by others, I pass for a 

 patriot with the mob, and certainly mount above par in the aristocracy 

 of Whiggism. 



Saveall. Ton my life, my lord, the confession is the counterpart of 

 your visage, very ample, innocent, and absurd. But your dinners are 

 meritorious ; and we can forgive your sincerity for the sake of your 

 soup ; which is the reverse of what I can say for my countrymen. But 

 who is the fat fellow lying in the cradle, with a projecting toe muffled 

 up in the full costume of the gout ; his finger in his mouth ; and his 

 honest face in the enjoyment of an uneasy sleep ? 



Shilelah. Can't possibly tell. Perhaps Lyndhurst he has the gout, 

 as becomes the bench ; has his finger in his mouth, as becomes a mem- 



