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nity, that the honourable gentleman (Mr. Coventry) near me has proved it to be founded in inhumanity. For what is the avowed object of it? To oblige men to come out of those prifons in which they live fo luxuriously! To force them to have that liberty which the honourable gentleman has proved to be fo unpleasant to men who are debtors.

Mr. Burke, Feb. 28, 1780.

There was, I have heard, an handsome widow, poffeffed of an handsome income, who lived in a diffenting meeting-house; a well-intentioned man, who attended the service of the day, faw her, and was invited by her to vifit her; he fell in love with her, and coming directly to the point, faid, “Madam, will you marry me?" She refufed him. He ftill perfifted in his request; and fhe ftill refufed. He then changed his requeft, and asked her " to let him be her fteward." "No, fhe would not." Her butler? "No." Her cook?"No." Would the entrust him with the care of her wardrobe! "No." After a variety of requests, finding them all denied, he was going away, when on a fudden he turned round, and begged one of her husband's old wigs. The widow, who had refused all his former requifitions, complied with this; and the man, who had asked the widow to give him her person and fortune, was obliged at last to be contented with one of her husband's old wigs. So is the case with me; I would marry the handsome and rich widow Economy. I fain would have her perfon and fortune, but finding I can't get them, I have afked to be her treasurer, her fteward, her butler, her cook, and her wardrobe keeper-but all in vain! I have got one of her late husband's old wigs, and with that I fear I muft walk off contented; but only I beg the Committee will do me the justice to remember, that by my reform bill I did not fo far degrade myself as to ask for the old wig folely.

Mr. Burke, March 20, 1780.

I have at prefent no refpect to the origin of the war, but to the now ftate of it. I confider not what it has been, but what in reality it is, and what it is likely to be; and I must compare thofe politicians, who are perpetually murmuring about the beginning of the war, to the ideot who is accustomed to hear, at certain hours, a village clock, through the mere force of habit, and the affociation of ideas, continued to count the hours, at the proper periodical times, after the clock had gone to decay, or was broken.

Mr. Courtenay, Nov. 27, 1780.

With respect to the perfonal altercation between the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Rigby), and an honourable baronet (Sir Jofeph Mawbey), dulnefs with the best intentions to be brilliant is often unavoidable. A pig, it is faid, never attempts to swim, which is the next thing to foaring, without cutting its throat. Again, it is faid, that an eel swims fafter in mud, though it has no fins, than fifhes that have.

Mr. Courtenay, Nov. 27, 1780. .

Perhaps I fhall be called "The Old Rat of the Conftitution!" The noble Lord who has been pleased to bestow, that title upon me, is always inclined to take the greatest liberties with his best friends, and those who really wished him fincerely well. Perhaps the noble Lord thought they would be the last to be offended with him, and I do affure the noble Lord (Lord George Gordon) that I am not offended. There is no harm in the appellation-it was a ftroke of innocent humour. I have been puzzled, however, to discover through what chink of the noble Lord's skull the Old Rat has crept into his head, and I have been puzzled to find out why I was called the Old Rat of the Conftitution. I saw in the newspapers, that I have been reading this morning, a paragraph upon it, and the news writer was alfo puzzled to account for the title. He had endeavoured to discover what property of a rat belonged to him.

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Did the noble Lord think he was one of those who would run away from the Conftitution, when it was in danger, as a rat would run away from a falling house? I do affure the noble Lord that I will not. As long as my friendly limbs will enable me, and friendly I have a right to call them, for they have borne me for nearly feventy-one years, I will ftand up and fupport it; fupport it to the last hour of my life, let who will endeavour to pull it down and undermine it, under pretext of neceffary alteration; better to be buried under the ruins of the Conftitution, than to furvive it. I will go farther-I will support the Minifter; the noble Lord wishes well to his country, and has true love for the Conftitution. The noble Lord would fooner die than fuffer it to be impaired. I like the noble Lord for it. I have voted with him in the time of his profperity, and I will vote for him now. Having thus dif avowed one of the qualities of a rat, I will tell the House which of the qualities of this animal I admire. A rat is fometimes intent on acquiring good things. It thinks it has a right to vifit the bread room, and the cook's cabin. It will go there, but it always cautiously avoids gnawing through the fides of the veffel; it never makes a hole that will endanger the fhip. Let the gentlemen in oppofition hold this in their minds; let them, if they think they have a right to force their way into the bread room, go there and get their share of the good things; but let them take care how they force a plank out of the fhip's fide; let them take care that, in their zeal for alteration, they do not fink the veffel. The noble Lord, who has called me an old rat, has fomething of a rat in his own conftitution; he likes good things. I remember when the noble Lord was fome years ago on a vifit to my house; he was fond of going into the cook's pantry and dairy. Indeed I muft tell the Houfe, I had at that time a remarkably pretty dairy maid.

Earl Nugent, April 13, 1780..

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An expreffion has dropped from the noble Lord in the blue ribband (Lord North), which, to my furprife, has not been taken up by any gentleman. The noble Lord has faid, "he believes it will be found that he has more enemies than friends by the lift he had fent to the Bank," as it ferves to make me believe that the noble Lord is coming over to the opinion of an honourable friend of mine, who has brought in a bill lately to regulate the civil establishment, and has contended, that taking from the Minifter the power of bestowing great pecuaway niary emoluments by loans, &c. and of appointing to places, would ftrengthen the true and proper influence of the Crown, remove a very heavy clog from the wheels of Government, and affift the progress of its operation. By the noble Lord's complaining that the prefent loan has made him enemies, if his Lordship is fincere in his prefent declaration, it would not be at all surprising, if, in a few days, the noble Lord fhould bring in a bill for abolishing all those places, left, by keeping them up, and making enemies to Government by them, he should deftroy the influence of the Crown!

Mr. Sheridan, March 12, 1781.

I do not wish to tire the Houfe with a fecond. differtation upon optics, but I cannot help mentioning a circumstance which ftruck me a few days ago as I was walking along.. Paffing by a mathematical-inftrument fhop, I faw the picture of a distorted vifage, which I could hardly make out; I thought, however, it might reprefent Britannia weeping. I had the curiofity to ftep into the fhop, and examined it through another glafs, when, to my furprise, I found it to be a laughing man. I thought with my felf, that whilft Britannia weeps, those will laugh that win.

I do not deny but fome remedy is wanting for the disorders which prevail in our India affairs; but I think corrections and alterations should be tried before amputation fhould be fo fuddenly determined on; and I much question whether the prescrip

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tions of the right honourable Galen, and his dearly-beloved brother, Doctor Sangrado, will be efficacious towards a cure; though I doubt not both the one and the other would pocket fome good fees for their naufeous draught, which is foon expected to operate by a most violent evacuation on the whole Court of Directors of the Eaft-India Company. Befides, it is agreed on all hands (I fpeak with fubmiffion to the faculty) that where seven phyficians and nine apothecaries are called in, as a worthy member of this House has before ftiled the new Directors and their fubs, the death of the patient is at hand. I mean not at all to reflect on the right honourable Secretary's' Congé d'Elire, much lefs on the Directors who were nominated by virtue of that Congé d'Elire; on the contrary, if the EaftIndia bill must pass, I congratulate the House on the choice, as I know there are among them men of integrity, men of sense, and men of business.

Sir Richard Hill, Dee. 1, 1783.

An honourable baronet (Sir Jofeph Mawbey) has been liberal of abuse on the Ordnance Office: this is a happy constitution, where a man may speak what he pleafes; nay, if he pleases, without knowing what he is faying, or caring whether any one pays the leaft attention to what he fays. Such a man may talk of augean ftables; but happy it is that the honourable baronet's expreffions are generally harmless in their effect: it inight be otherwife, indeed, if he had been acquainted with the manner in which Alexander the Sixth, and his fon, Cæfar Borgia, ufed to make a deadly poifon, which came from the mouth of a pig. Voltaire, in his Univerfal Hiftory, speaking of this poison, relates, that Alexander and his fon used to tie up a pig by the hind legs, and beat him till he frothed at the mouth; fome of this froth, adminiftered in a cup of wine to a man, was

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