COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON 21 



" Lord Rosslyn acknowledged the toast, and said 

 he could assure Mr. Young he had no ambition to be 

 amongst the number of those blockheads to whom he 

 had so feelingly alluded. Whatever might be the 

 political opinions in the House of Lords, there was 

 one sentiment which the members had all in common, 

 and that was a love of fox-hunting. There was, in 

 fact, no other body which contained so many lovers 

 of fox-hunting, so many preservers of foxes, or so 

 many good riders. The House of Lords, however, 

 had grave duties to perform that were not connected 

 with fox-hunting, and should the time ever come when 

 the House of Lords should be called upon to stand 

 between the momentary excited passions of the people 

 and the great principles on which the constitution of 

 the country was based, he hoped the peers would be 

 as firm and as loyal to their duty as their ancestors 

 had been. As to the cause of their meeting there 

 that day, he would only say that he had known 

 Captain Thomson for the best part of his life, that 

 he went out hunting with him at the beginning of his 

 hunting career, that he followed him to Northampton- 

 shire and found a wife there, and had seen better 

 sport in the Pytchley country than in any other he 

 had ever seen in his life. 



" W. Smyth, Esq., proposed ' The Members for 

 the County and the Town,' and said all present 

 would agree with him that, however great a differ- 

 ence of political opinion might exist among them, 

 they all endeavoured to do their duty conscientiously 

 and to the best of their ability. With the toast he 



