IX.] CORN IS APPLICABLE. 



former (as the Reverend Mr, Agutter most 

 feelingly told us) placed at the bottom of the 

 kettle, or rather to within tvvo inches of the 

 top ; and then a fine herring laid on them, 

 and sending its gravy (coming from guts and 

 all^ mind) gently trickling down through the 

 potatoes, even the skins of which were made so 

 mellow by the process, as to make it impossible 

 for any human being to reject them : '^ we should 

 indeed, never have heard of these things ; nor 

 should we have heard of some half score of mem- 

 bers of parliament, that I could name, being 

 reproached on the hustings, by the mass of the 

 people, with their attempts to cram this Irish 

 and Scotch diet down the throats of Englishmen. 

 These things we never should have heard of; 

 but if we had had the corn, we might have dis- 

 pensed with the honour of having a '^ Commis- 

 sioner of Scotch Herrings/^ and with the dish, 

 exquisite as it was, as described by the eloquent 

 pen of the Rev. Mr. Aggutter. The soup- 

 shops indeed, and the passports to the kettle, 

 which gentlemen and ladies carried about in 

 their pockets, one would not have wished to be 

 deprived of, being, as they were, a source of ever- 

 lasting fun. But, there was one thing which 

 we should have tota.lly lost, or at least, should 

 never have enjoyed ; namely, that decisive proof 

 of the " wisdom of Parliament," the passing of 



