2i 4 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



power, either to procure to it many and great advantages, 

 by a prudent discharge of the duties of his station, or 

 involve his country, through misconduct, in the very 

 deepest distress ; and, therefore, that man must be 

 worthy of no small punishment who, whilst he is un- 

 wearied in his endeavours to obtain this honour, takes 

 little or no thought about qualifying himself properly for 

 executing a trust of such vast importance.' " 



"I remember the passage you allude to," replied Mr. 

 Beaumont Raby, "and also that the lecture of Socrates 

 wrought so powerfully on the young gentleman, that he 

 immediately applied himself to the gaining instruction, 

 which qualified him for the post ; and why should not 

 my nephew have done so also ? The history of our 

 country tells us that youth is no bar to a display of 

 either talent or of action ; and, if you recollect, when 

 Homer calls Agamemnon venerable, it is not in reference 

 to his years, but to his knowledge and acquirements." 



" Well," resumed the Baronet, " all I can say on the 

 subject is, that, amongst my acquaintance (indeed, I 

 might have been in the House myself, but I was aware of 

 my own incapacity to do good), three very good fellows, 

 in their way, had seats in Parliament as soon as they 

 came of age ; but I have yet to learn that either of them 

 did anything beyond the value of their vote. One of 

 them, in fact, disappointed me ; for, being rather a 

 cleverish fellow, I thought he would have made a good 

 speech, and knowing it was his intention to make one, I 

 went into the gallery one night to hear him. But what 

 was the result 1 In the first place, having had a dinner 

 party that evening, he was more than half drunk ; and 

 knowing that the motion he was about to speak on would 

 not be called till after midnight, he went first to the 

 Opera. Now, whether it was that, being musical, the 

 fine singing of Catalani had quite bothered his brains, or 

 the effect of wine, I cannot pretend to say, but this I 

 know, he made sad work of it. He not only hemm'd 

 and ha'd to an extent scarcely ever heard before ; kept 

 turning and twisting about his cocked hat as if, as Addison 

 humorously says, he had been cheapening a beaver, instead 

 of addressing a senate ; but at length got so bewildered 

 among the phenomena of his own theory, that, luckily 

 perhaps for him, his voice was so far drowned between 

 the ' hear, hear ' of his friends, and the coughs of his 



