Protestant interest; but the speech must always end with "a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together,"―recollect that, gentlemen, if a squire ever requests you to compose an oration for him. The last sentence is the only one, in fact, that is ever heard between the clatter the orator makes himself, with his boots and stick on the platform, and the uproar and rioting of the bold peasantry in the body of the court. Baronets in general make the best hits, as public speakers, in a constitutional crisis. The Baronets will have their day yet, take my word for it. Every dog has, sooner or later. The deuce of it is, that when one of your Sir Johns and Sir Rogers once gets to the 'long pull' without breaking down, and is complimented by the county paper for his manly eloquence,' he never gives a silent vote for the remainder of his life."

"I have met with a story," said Reuben, "of a certain devout orator of the class you allude to, who having sat down amidst deafening cheers, was overheard mumbling to himself, 'non nobis Domine,-only for the Latin I should say he must have been a baronet, and one of your men in buckskin."

me.

"Probably a man of Bucks," said Primrose.

"Have you any Irish pupils?" said Winning.

They come to me," said Chatterton, "but they don't want

"Do they pay you?"-asked De Tabley.

"They will, I make no doubt," said the Professor, with comic gravity, "they will, when they get their own again. Their estates were all forfeited, you know, poor fellows. I have six Irish pupils at present, and they all confidently expect to come into parliament before long,-I have polite invitations at this moment, I assure you, to three castles on the banks of the Shannon, and positive promises of ever so many elegant situations at the disposal of the Lord-Lieutenant."

"You are not often required to write speeches for the Irishmen, I should think," said Winning.

"I only wish I could make speeches at the rate they do," said Mr. Chatterton; "but then Ireland is such a great manufacturing country, you know."

Hold, Professor, I believe you are mistaken there," cried Winning.

"What does Ireland manufacture except butter and bacon?" asked Reuben.

"I know of nothing but oratory," said the Professor, "and it

เ

was oratory I meant, when I spoke of Irish manufactures. Dublin beats Manchester hollow for fustian. I don't mean to say that John Bull has not the talent also, for he has it in him as well as Paddy, and he is making rapid strides in eloquence of late years, but Paddy has more experience. Everything in Ireland is done with a speech and a shout, and the form of government the island is blessed with, favours the cultivation of my art extremely. Esto perpetua,' I say," "You mean the castle?" said Winning. "I do," said the Professor. "It may have its faults, but it has one great virtue, it gives the people something to talk at. The Viceroy is a target for the practice of oratory. If a man has the vein of panegyric, he has got something to address and flatter; if he is up to a philippic, he has always something to abuse. If he unites both gifts, he may throw flowers at his Excellency to-day, and fling thunderbolts at him to-morrow. the very worst, the Lord Lieutenant keeps the tongues of the doctors and professors in constant exercise; for it is the duty of the king's representative to stand an amount of lecturing, a twentieth part of which would make his majesty himself abdicate his crown. Esto perpetua,' say I."

At

I am disposed to say so too," said Medlicott, thoughtfully. "A form of government which promotes eloquence of all kinds so powerfully as you describe cannot be anything but a good one."

"The Irish, unfortunately, are not so partial to facts as to figures," said Winning.

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"There," said Chatterton, "I am disposed to agree with them; I don't think facts make the best speeches; facts are dry; sentiments do better."

"I suppose your Irish pupils live very much together," asked Primrose.

“The men who are talking of coming into the house," said Chatterton, "chum together in Panton Square, where they practise franking at breakfast, paliamentary elequence at dinner, and have quiet little evening parties, with oysters, punch, Lalla Rookh, and Grattan's speeches."

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They have capital oysters in Ireland," said De Tabley.

"I should like to be present at one of their paliamentary dinners," said Primrose.

"So should I of all things," said Mrs. Mountjoy.

"And I can tell you, madam," said the Professor, "you

would be a very welcome guest; for much as they admire the Peris of Paradise, they admire the Peris of this life more;-but the great fun is at supper: they get up little imaginary squabbles and rows with one another, to accustom themselves to coughing members down, and calling to order."

"We shall see droll people in the house if the Emancipation Bill passes," said De Tabley.

"As long as there are droll people out of the house," said Winning, "there will be droll people in the house, and there ought to be."

"I own I long to see Ireland, and even Panton Square, fully and fairly represented," said Primrose," and besides, to speak seriously, the best way I know to put an extinguisher upon folly and extravagance of all kinds, is to make a constituency of it, and give it a member, or members, in the House of Commons. They may be bores, to be sure, and do a great deal of mischief even there; but depend upon it, they would be ten times as troublesome and mischievous at the Corn Exchange, or the Crown and Anchor."

Mr. Medlicott, who had always sided with his grandfather upon the catholic question, was not to be convinced by this reasoning; but Winning coincided with Primrose, and was stating the grounds of his opinion, when De Tabley again returned to the subject of Irish oysters, and changed the conversation in good time, for Mrs. Mountjoy disliked politics; they puzzled her, and women don't like things that puzzle them, except conundrums and family secrets.

CHAPTER V.

THE PROFESSOR'S WIFE.

A FEW days later Mr. Primrose was walking in the Strand, when he was met and eagerly accosted by Professor Chatterton, who exclaimed

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Why, your friend, Mr. Medlicott, is the most wonderful young man I ever met with in all my professional experience; he comes to my lectuses when he is more fit to lecture himself. Talk of Irishmen-why, there's not one of them fit to hold a

candle to him! He's a perfect orator, sir, this moment; such fluency I never heard in my life: such beautiful language, and such abundance of it. By the merest chance I made the discovery; I had no notion he was such a clever fellow-he never said a word about it."

Primrose said it surprised him that Mr. Chatterton's sagacity had not sooner detected his friend's genius. He then begged to know how the revelation took place.

It appeared that at a certain stage of the Professor's course, it was the custom for his pupils to give practical proof of the progress they had made under his tuition, by rehearsing some composition of their own, or the model sermon already mentioned. On the present occasion it occurred to Mr. Chatterton, to try what his disciples could do at an extempore discourse, and Temperance was the topic fixed on, as it would not have been reverent to discuss a religious subject. Two or three fair attempts were made; the majority were dull in the extreme; some broke down after the first sentence; but when it came to Reuben's turn his facility, his copiousness, his endless variety of figures, images, metaphors, similes, allegories, illustrations, and quotations, astonished everybody present; until at length they cheered him as if he was haranguing at Exeter Hall, the effect of which was, that he quite forgot the nature of the occasion, and actually held forth so long, that at length, said the Professor, "I believe, some of the gentlemen present thought he would never stop."

"You were lucky that he did," said Primrose.

"He is nothing les than a prodigy," said the Professor. He will either be a bishop, or marry a duchess, before he is a year in the Church."

"Or purchase a chapel, and set up on his own account,” said Haycinth.

Twenty voices, at least, were busy at the same moment trumpeting in different parts of the town Mr. Medlicott's extraordinary display in Leicester-square. It takes, however, more than the breath of twenty voices to make what is called fame. Detraction was of course very busy also. Envy began to nibble at his reputation, when it was yet green, by way of earnest of what she would do hereafter, when it should attain its full growth. Some of the men who applauded him at the lecture, revenged themselves with sneers as soon as it was over. One declared the speech was all verbiage and fustian; another, more malignant, said "it was pretty;" a third admitted it was cleverish, but de

nied that it was clever. Very just criticisms, all of them, most probably, but they were not on that account the less narrow and ill-natured.

"He possesses talent," said Mr. Araby, the sacred poet, in conversation with Primrose, "but it's a talent I dont envy."

"Nobody envies another's talents," replied Haycinth; "the thing we envy is adiniration, popularity, success. We envy a man his fortune-not his genius, and still less his virtues. Virtue was never envied."

"Well, I confess I envy his facility," said Winning, who spoke ably, but not fluently enough to satisfy himself.

Of course there was an end of lectures as a vehicle of instruction. Reuben's rhetorical education was finished. He bore his honours meekly-he wore his laurels gracefully; if he triumphed it was in private, when his aunt Mountjoy prophesied all human glories for him; still more when his mother, down in Sussex, echoed the praises that reached her from London, through her sister's letters and other authentic channels.

Nothing remained but to attend the supplementary lecture by Madame Chatterton. Her one lecture excited more curiosity than the whole course delivered by her husband. Reuben took tickets for himself, his aunt, and Primrose. The Professor positively refused payment for them.

The lady no sooner appeared than Reuben felt assured he had seen her before, though where or when he tried in vain to recall. She was very little French, except in name; but she was very handsome, very lively, very clever, fluent, and exceedingly entertaining. If the husband was convinced that the most important qualifications for the pulpit were histrionic, the wife was no less under the firm impression that they were more of a cosmetic nature. Chatterton relied on action and passion; Madame upon kalydor and cambric. She dwelt upon the beauty of the latter, as if it had been the beauty of holiness; mixing up the topics of Fénélon and fine linen with so much practical address, that she disposed of a few dozen French handkerchiefs, at half-a-guinea each, before she concluded her observations. Mrs. Mountjoy bought a box of them, embroidered with mitres, cherubs, aud other ecclesiastical devices, half for herself and half for Reuben. From handkerchiefs Madame passed to the arrangement of the hair with a view to devotional effect, and began by lamenting that this was so little attended to by the majority of the clergy, and by some of them held almost in contempt. Apropos to