chief librarian at the British Museum, whose chair that was, pointing to one upon wheels, in the trustees' room, "That is Lady Holland's seat," replied Ellis, "and she is wheeled into the trustees' room upon it, and placed at the left hand of the president." It was always her custom, when in London, to attend the meetings and offer her opinion, although she had not the shadow of a right to do so. 148. ANECDOTE CONCERNING A REMARKABLE PETITION PRESENTED TO OLIVER CROMWELL. To his Highness the Lord Protector of the Common- Sheweth, THAT your petitioner's husband hath been active and faithful in the wars of this commonwealth, both by sea and land, and hath undergone many hazards by imprisonment and fights, to the endangering his life, and at last lost the use of his right arm, and is utterly disabled from future service, as doth appear from the certificate annexed; and yet he hath no more than forty shillings pension from Chatham by the year. That your petitioner having one only son, who is tractable to learn, and not having wherewith to bring him up, by reason of their present low estate, occasioned by the public service aforesaid, Humbly prayeth, that your Highness would vouchsafe to present her said son, Randolph Beacham, to be a scholar in Sutton's Hospital, I called the Charter-house. OLIVER, P. We refer this petition and certificate to the commissioners for Sutton's Hospital. July 28, 1655. Copy of a Letter sent by Oliver Cromwell to his Secretary on the above petition being presented. You receive from me, this 28th instant, a petition of Margery Beacham, desiring the admission of her son into the Charter-house. I know the man, who was employed one day in an important secret service, which he did effectually, to our great benefit, and the Commonwealth's. The petition is a brief relation of a fact, without any flattery. I have written under it a common reference to the commissioners, but I mean a great deal more-that it shall be done, without their debate or consideration of the matter, and so do you privately hint to I have not the particular shining bauble or feather in my cap for crowds to gaze at or kneel to, but I have power and resolution for foes to tremble at. To be short, I know how to deny petitions; and whatever I think proper for out G ward form to refer to any officer or office, I expect that such my compliance with custom shall be also looked upon as an indication of my will and pleasure to have the thing done; see therefore that the boy is admitted.-Thy true friend, OLIVER, P. CH 149. 'HARLES WILLIAMS WYNN, for many years the father of the House of Commons, who from his youth upwards had been the great oracle of parliamentary law, delivered an opinion in the House, on a question of privilege, contrary to Brougham's, fortifying his position with many precedents and references to the Journals. Lord Campbell relates the incident, and the compliment Brougham paid to the learned member, winding up with the statement that, "In short, he is a man whose devotion in this respect can only be equalled by that of a learned ancestor of his (Speaker Williams, temp. Car. II.), who having fainted from excessive toil and fatigue, a smellingbottle was called for, when one, who knew much better the remedy adapted to the case, exclaimed, 'For God's sake, bring him an old black-letter Act of Parliament, and let him smell that!' I cannot help thinking that, in like manner, if my right honourable and learned friend should ever be attacked in a similar way, the mere smelling of a volume of the Journals could not fail instantly to revive him." 150. BROUGHAM, speaking of Sir Robert Walpole, says: "In general his manner was simple, and even familiar, with a constant tendency towards gaiety. In vehemence of declamation he seldom indulged, and anything very violent was foreign to his habits at all times. Yet sometimes he deviated from this course, and once spoke under such excitement (on the motion respecting Lord Cadogan's conduct, 1717) that the blood burst from his nose, and he had to quit the House. But for this accidental relief, he probably would have afforded a singular instance of a speaker, always good-humoured and easy in his delivery beyond almost any other, dropping down dead in his declamation, from excess of vehemence; and at this time he was between forty and fifty years of age." WH 151. WHEN George Daniel, of Canonbury, the book and print collector, went to look over the curiosities of the elder Mathews, at Highgate, almost every time the actor showed him (as he thought) some unique volume or engraving, Daniel cried out, “Ay, ay! very rare, very valuable! but I have a duplicate of it in my library." At last Matthews, getting out of patience, exclaimed, "Why, d-n you, you have got duplicates of everything I have, excepting my lame leg; I wish you'd got one of that!" 152. WHEN THEN I told Jeffrey that I had composed a work ["The Spirit of the Age"], in which I had in some sort handled about a score of leading characters, he said, "Then you will have one man against you and the remaining nineteen for you." I have not found it so.-Hazlitt. 153. BACON, in his "Essays Moral and Civil," gives the following anecdote of More, whilst he was Lord Chancellor. A person, who had a suit in Chancery, sent him two silver flagons, not doubting of the agreeableness of the present. On receiving them, More called one of his servants, and told him to fill those two vessels with the best wine in his cellar; and turning round to the servant who had presented them, "Tell your master," replied the inflexible magistrate, "that, if he approves my wine, I beg he would not spare it." 154. A MINISTER, catechising his parishioners, among the rest called up a woman of more confidence than judgment, and asked her who died for her?"Pray, sir," says she, "let us alone with your taunts!" He told her that this was no matter of taunting, and asked her the same question again. "Sir," replied she, "I have been an honest housekeeper these twenty years, and methinks it does not become a man of your coat to mock me at this |