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solicitations: for to say nothing of the Oh! ohs !' which proceeded from what Mr. O'Connel would call the leather lungs' of certain gentlemen, whenever he rose, I have seen him entreated by the hands as well as by the most sweet voices' of three or four other honourable members all at once. I have seen one look him most imploringly in the face, and heard him say in tones and with a manner as coaxing as if the party had been wooing his mistress- O do not just yet, Mr. Brotherton: wait one other half hour until this matter be disposed of.' I have seen a second seize him by the right arm, while a third grasped him by the left, with the view of causing him to resume his seat; and when his sense of duty overcame all these efforts to seduce or force him from its path, I have seen a fourth honourable gentleman rush to the assistance of the others, and take hold of the tails of his coat, literally press him to his seat. I have seen Mr. Brotherton, with a perseverance beyond all praise in this righteous and most patriotic cause, suddenly start again to his feet in less than five minutes, and move a second time the adjournment of the House, and I have again had the misfortune to see physical force triumph over the best moral purposes. Five or six times have I witnessed the repetition of this in one night. On one occasion, I remember seeing an honourable member actually clap his hand on Mr. Brotherton's mouth, in order to prevent his moving the dreaded adjournment."

Mr. Brotherton, while advocating the claims of the factory children four years ago, emphatically declared he was once a poor factory boy himself, and though now a rich manufacturer he did not shrink from confirming his statements by a reference to his own actual experience. He is liberal, but not ultra radical, a man of excellent moral character, and a dissenter.

In the notice on Mr. Grantley Berkeley we find the following remarks on the admission of ladies to the gallery, of which Mr. B. is the well known advocate.

"I am surprised that in a house where such transcendant gallantry is professed as in the House of Commons, Mr. Grantley Berkeley's efforts to procure admission for the ladies into the gallery should always be defeated. And what may appear still more surprising is the fact, that in most cases the greatest dandies-those who profess to pay such extreme attention to their dress from their devotion to the fair sex-are the most strenuous in their efforts to continue the exclusion of the ladies. But to use a familiar expression, I see how it all is;' these coxcomb legislators are so vain of having their own persons admired, that they cannot bear the idea of having such a phalaux of female beauty in the house as would, of necessity, withdraw attention entirely from themselves. Some of these dandy legislators not only display a profusion of rings on their fingers, and sport splendid chains' on their breasts, and lace as tightly almost as the ladies themselves; but you may nose them at a distance of many yards, through means of the rich perfumes with which they scent the surrounding atmosphere.'

The satire of this passage may be just, but the reasoning is very stupid. The coxcombs he speaks of would be the greatest gainers VOL. 11. (1838.) NO. II.

X

by the admission of ladies, for they would engross all the admiration of that dear delightful "phalanx of beauty," as they do wherever they meet their eyes; and if by attention, is here meant the attention of the other members, better that it should continue to be directed towards the coxcombs, than towards more dangerous and deluding objects; if the attention of the strangers and reporters, we feel very certain they never trouble their heads about it.

The true ground of the opposition of members to Mr. Grantley Berkeley's motion is, that the presence of ladies, besides distracting attention, would aggravate the bitterness of taunts, and sharp expressions, inflame animosities, and cause those scratches which are now scarcely felt or are healed as soon as inflicted, to fester and rankle into incurable wounds.

"Lord John Russell," says the author, "seemed quite fidgetty. How his mind was exercised, is a question I cannot pretend to answer." Certainly not, unless his great Master Lavater whom he is perpetually invoking, were to enable him to read people's thoughts by staring at their faces. "One thing," continues our author, " must have appeared sufficiently clear to every one who observed the noble Lord that he must have been somewhat more sedate in his appearance when he wrote his Essay on the British Constitution, and his Tragedy of Don Carlos."

Now what conceivable connection is there between Lord John's being fidgetty while listening to a prosy speaker, and his having written an essay and a tragedy. The genus irritabile vatum are not at their ease while they are writing, far from it, especially dramatists. Moore gives us a most ludicrous enumeration of the various eccentricities exhibited by authors in the act of composing: the probability is that Lord John's fidgettiness did actually arise from the throes of mental labour, or the compression of the embryo ideas that were too eager to rush into the world. A more misplaced and paltry allusion could not have been hit upon. There can be no doubt it was highly unbecoming both in Lord John Russell, Lord Morpeth and Mr. Spring Rice-the latter gentleman actually carrying on a conversation in the gallery-to testify such open disrespect to the oration which poor Mr. Sanford was labouring to deliver at their instigation and purely to oblige them, with his legs embarrassed with a sword, and his wrists with lace ruffles, and it would appear that the vein of vulgarity extends through the house from the leader downwards.

The length to which our extracts have already run must necessarily prevent us from noticing the characters of members in the 2nd volume. However, we cannot pass over Sir W. Molesworth and Mr. Leader, as they form a party in themselves. They are both young men of talent, distinguished as literateurs, and for considerable powers of eloquence. They are a sort of political Siamese twins who hold in common the same extreme political opinions.

Indeed they think, speak, and act in harmony, that one could almost fancy there was but one mind equally divided between them. In order that this interchange of sentiment and feeling may be less liable to interruption, they live in the same house in Pimlico, where Mr. Roebuck generally spends his Sundays. The unity of purpose which distinguished the extreme Radicals last session, and which has since disappeared, is to be ascribed to the circumstance of Sir W. Molesworth and Mr. Leader having come to the resolution-and carried it into practice too-of giving a series of parliamentary dinners to their party. They commenced the week before the opening of the session, and were given at the Clarendon every Sunday. Sir W. Molesworth paid one week and Mr. Leader the other. The fear of exclusion from these Sunday festivals operated most powerfully in keeping the party together. The dinners were discontinued during the present session and the party fell to pieces-a very intelligible satire upon parties and politicians.

Both Sir William and Mr. Leader take the precaution of writing their speeches, and of speaking from memory. They are both good scholars, but Mr. Leader has the best delivery of the two. dicals, they are both men of inflexible obstinacy of character.

As ra

The failure of Sir F. Pollock and Mr. B. D'Israeli, and the lamentable catastrophe of the entire breaking down of Mr. Gibson Craig, the seconder of the address, are too notorious to need a comment. In the case of Mr. D'Israeli, there was a display of most ungentlemanly conduct on the part of the ministerial side of the House. He has since spoken and with partial success.

We close these volumes of the second series of Random Recollections, highly satisfied with the entertainment and instruction they have afforded us. They are as well written, though they do not profess the interest of the first. There is a more palpable effort at book-making evident throughout, and in some places the style is coarse and exaggerated; however, to the curious in the gossip of the gallery of the House of Commons, the perusal of these volumes must afford a very agreeable relaxation.

NOTICES.

ART. XII.-Guide to Switzerland, &c. &c. By FRANCIS COGHLAN. London Baily and Co. 1838.

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MR. COGHLAN takes the best and surest method of equipping himself for writing such works as the one before us. He visits the scenes, pursues

the routes described, and then communicates in singularly plain and compact form the results of his experience; that experience extending to every thing, even the minutest, upon which tourists can possibly require information. His long and constant practice of supplying the world with similar productions, gives him a manifest advantage over almost every

other Guide; and we may safely add, that the present volume fully equals its predecessors by the same author.

ART. XIII.-Poems, for the most Part Occasional. By JOHN KENYON, formerly of St. Peter's College, Cambridge. London: Moxon. 1831. REFINED taste, a mind highly cultured, an imagination which habitually luxuriates among touching and gentle thoughts and lovely images, everywhere manifest themselves in these Occasional Pieces. Perhaps there is a want of power and originality evinced; but then it ought to be borne in mind that the accuracy of Mr. Kenyon's versification, and the fine symmetrical proportions preserved in whatever he puts his hand to, conceal the vigour and dignity of his productions from the careless reader. It appears to us that he possesses in an eminent degree those enviable qualifications which enable him by the disportings of his muse to contribute to those elegant and rich feasts, of which it is impossible to taste without finding the heart to be thereby mended and feeling purified. He can even strike the higher chords of our nature, and afford to the mind the sense of having its noblest powers and attributes exalted and expanded; and these are results which must certainly be numbered amongst the greatest and most precious triumphs of poetry. From one of the longer poems, the first, indeed, in the volume, we cull a specimen. The theme is one that has been wearifully drawn upon by every poetaster, till it might be supposed another image, another sentiment, could not be appended to it-the Queen of Night, we mean. But see part of what a true poet can say about this fair and universally admired goddess.

"And Queen thou art in this thy realm of midnight,
And lovely as queen-like; yet not lovely less
When thou art lapsing on through either twilight,
Companion of the evening or the dawn.

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And ne'er did dawn behold thee lovelier yet,
Than when we saw thee, one remembered day,
Thee and that brightest of all morning stars,
Hang o'er the Adrian; not in thy full lustre,
But graceful with slim crescent; such as, erst,
Some Arab chief beheld in his own sky,
Of purest deepest azure; and so loved it,
So loved it, that he chose it for his symbol;
A peaceful symbol in a warlike banner!
And oft, I ween, in many a distant camp,

'Mid the sharp neigh of steeds, and clash of cymbals,
And jingle of the nodding Moorish bells,

When he hath caught that image o'er his tents,

Hath he bethought him of the placid hours

When thou wert whitening his night-feeding flocks
On Yemen's happy hills; and then, perchance,

Hath sighed to think of war."

Lovelier lines of melodious verse, and lovelier thoughts, we think have seldom greeted the ear and heart. From the shorter and slighter pieces we might pluck not a few gems. One must suffice; and indeed together

with the foregoing admirable specimen, it cannot fail to impress the poetic reader's mind with a very high opinion of Mr. Kenyon's muse.

is Freedom.

""Tis not because fierce swords are flashing there

With licence and a reckless scorn of life,

When for some petty gaude upstarts a strife,
That freedom there must harbour. Slavery's air
Breeds many a liveried satrap, prompt to dare,
And soldier-serfs are ready there and rife

To march at summons of the jerking fife.

Its title

But where swords-some-are turned to ploughshare-where
Others, not rusted, o'er the household hearth,

In peaceful pomp, near cradled babe are hung,
And sires rest reverenced in holy earth,

And marriage-bells with holy cheer are rung,

There Freedom dwells, Constraint's sublime reward,
And Peace must rear her, e'en if War must guard."

ART. XIV.-The Young Lady's Book of Botany. London: Tyas. 1838.

An elegant little volume as regards binding, typography, and illustrations, twelve of these being carefully coloured; there are besides many other accurate representations of a less laboured character. But exterior and immediately obvious beauties are not the only excellences of the Young Lady's Book of Botany, for as an Introduction to that popular science it possesses the merit of being plain, suitable, and comprehensive. It is not only calculated to excite as well as to sustain and advance a taste for the cultivation of the branch of knowledge of which it treats, but to contain no inconsiderable degree of the knowledge required.

ART. XV.-Rebecca Wilson, the Cumberland Girl. London : Green. 1838.

THIS is the first Number of a small work for young folks. It is intended -and the scheme and execution are worthy of the intention-to engage the minds and hearts of those for whom it has been written by means of a tale concerning the natural features of Cumberland, and the social condition of the people of that district, as also to teach by life-like example, some of the most important lessons which a young girl in Rebecca Wilson's situation and with her disposition can receive or need. A series of little works with a similar design by the same hand, in the course of time, will amount to a valuable juvenile library, and be influential towards advancing the culture of the head, feelings, and taste of its susceptible readers.

ART. XVI.-Letters from the Levant during the Embassy to Constantinople, 1716-18. BY LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGUE. London: Rickerby. 1838.

THIS is one of the republications of some of the choicest literary gems of

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