260 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



witnesses, their names and addresses, and, of course, 

 we failed not to be pretty well acquainted with the 

 foregone lives, habits, and characters of every soul 

 that appeared before that committee ; at least I know 

 that I so possessed myself of the previous histories of 

 Mr. Bright's friends, and funny ones some of them 

 were ; and, if the reader refers to the voluminous 

 publication of the evidence taken before the com- 

 mittee and printed by the House of Commons, it will 

 be seen that, with few exceptions, an indifferent set 

 came up as called by Mr. Bright. When Hooper was 

 before the committee Mr. Bright, in cross-examina- 

 tion, and with his usual acerbity to those whose 

 views oppose his own, endeavoured to cast an impu- 

 tation on the value of Hooper's evidence on account 

 of his having been a smuggler. Unfortunately for 

 Mr. Bright, one of his own party on that committee, 

 at least one who supported him in many of his 

 opinions, had known Hooper while he lived with Sir 

 Edward Butler as head gamekeeper, and who, as a 

 justice of peace, had seen the manner in which Hooper 

 dealt with and conducted his game cases. When 

 Mr. Bright thus endeavoured to sneer at Hooper's 

 evidence, Mr. Etwell at once rose and gave Hooper 

 the highest possible character. All the taunts of the 

 unforbearing Quaker were borne by Hooper's indig- 

 nant countenance and iron frame with the contempt 

 which in that case they deserved ; but, when he heard 

 a gentleman, he had supposed to be arrayed against 

 him, unexpectedly rise and refute all unworthy in- 

 sinuations, and speak to his honesty, respectability, 

 and worth, that happened, which neither abuse, blows, 

 wounds, nor the prospect of death by tempest at sea, 

 nor a loaded gun at his head, would have produced — 



