[416] The familiar way in which Pearson addressed members seems to have been generally condoned on account of his long service. Once when General Grant, who had boasted that he would march victoriously through America with three thousand men, asked the door-keeper how long a certain member would speak, Pearson replied, "As long, General, if he was allowed, as you would be in marching through and conquering America!" Pearson's "Political Dictionary," p. 10.
[417] Ibid., p. 6.
[418] "Life of Lord Hardwicke," vol. i. p. 489.
[419] Greville, "Memoirs," vol. iii. p. 389.
[420] Boyd's "Reminiscences," p. 49.
[421] Doyle's "Recollections," p. 174.
[422] Grant's "Recollections," p. 16.
[423] G. W. E. Russell's "Sir Wilfrid Lawson," p. 227.
[424] "Works," vol. ii. 327.
[425] Ladies of rank often attended the Saxon Witenagemots, and in the reigns of Henry III., Edward I., and Edward III. certain abbesses were summoned to send proxies to Parliament. (See G. B. Smith's "History," vol. i p. 11.) In the sixteenth century the right to elect a member for the rotten borough of Gatton was in the hands of a woman. See Porritt' s "Unreformed House of Commons," vol. i. p. 97.