82 Nolcs of the Month on ^JuLY, 



A Dialogue. 



Lord A. HoAv could you be mad enough to touch the question ? You 

 should have gone on, like me, about and about it, professing and 

 explaining, hoping and fearing, till you left the House fast asleep, after 

 a speech of three hours ; of which, after the first three minutes, no man 

 living could make out a syllable. 



Lord B. It was a monstrous blunder, to be sure. But recollect my 

 inexperience. Yet, I don't think I talked much to the purpose after 

 all. My worst enemies never accused me of that ; and I really gave 

 myself credit for speaking as unintelligibly as any one on my side. 



Lord A. I admit it. But your speech was prodigiously to the pur- 

 pose for all that ; the purpose of turning you and your set out. Recol- 

 lect what it was. " The noble Earl had recommended the expedient of 

 Parliamentary Reform, and remarked, that he did not think that the 

 government was as yet prepared with any plan on the subject. The 

 noble Earl was right, for certainly the government was not irrepared 

 with any plan for Parliamentary Reform. I will go farther, and say, 

 that I never heard that any country ever had a more improved, or more 

 satisfactory representation than this country enjoys at this moment. I do 

 not mean to enter upon that subject now, as it is probable that we shall 

 have abundant opportunities to consider it afterwards ; but I do say 

 that this country has now a legislature more calculated to answer all the 

 purposes of a good legislature than any other that can be well devised — ■ 

 that it possesses, and deservedly possesses, the confidence of the country, 

 and that its discussions have a powerfid influence in the country. And I 

 will say farther, that if I had to form a legislature, I would create one 

 — not equal in excellence to the present, for that I could not expect to be 

 able to do, but something nearly of the same description as possible. I 

 should form it of men possessed of a large proportion of the property 

 of tlie country, in which tlie landholders should have a great prepon- 

 derance. I, therefore, am not prepared with any measure of Parliamen- 

 tary Reform, nor shall -'ny measure of the kind be proposed by the 

 government, as long as I hold my present situation." 



Lord B. I say that's impossible. If I had any meaning that night at 

 all, it was the direct contrary. The whole affair must have been the 

 work of those impudent newspapers. They will be for taking down a 

 man's words, and then holding him to them. Rascals ! There, at least, 

 we 7nnst have a reform. 



We may expect no moral wonders from military men, but is it too 

 much to expect that they shall observe the common decencies of society? 

 "We expect no remarkable strictness of discipline from the Horse Guards, 

 where an officer of a "hussar regiment," a man of fortune, and, above 

 all, a Dundas, is the delinquent. But the public voice will not be 

 silent while this IVIajor Dundas is allowed to flourish about with his 

 notoriety full upon him. The gallant viceroy of Ireland is the Colonel- 

 in-chief of the above distinguished regiment, in which Major Dundas, 

 possessing the advantages of fortune, high connections, and parhamen- 

 tary influence, has risen rapidly to be a field officer, without encounter- 

 ing the hazards of the field or the vicissitudes of climates. This gallant 

 officer is the son of the Hon. I\Irs. Robert Dundas, and the late Right 

 Hon. Robert Dundas, Lord Chief Baron of Scotland, who died in 1819, 

 bequeathing Major Dundas and his brother £91,000. He is also nephew 



