"Girl: Yes. I am anxious to get home. I hope and believe that my father will forgive me for the sorrow I have caused him. I have had my own sorrows, too.
"The Lord Mayor: How did it happen that you fancied the sailor's dress, well knowing that by assuming the appearance of one you pledged yourself to perform such terrible duties?
"Girl: I couldn't think of any other way, and I did the duties as well as I could. I underwent a good deal. I travelled from East Port in North America to St. Andrew's by myself, a distance of seventy miles through the woods. I walked all the way.
"The Lord Mayor: And without sustaining any injury?
"Girl: I received none. I knew the sailor's clothes would carry me through safe, and at St. Andrew's I met Captain McIntire.
"The Lord Mayor: I will give directions that you be taken care of until I can hear from your father, to whom I shall write to-night. You have done him great wrong by abandoning him under any pretence, but you have suffered bitterly for your disobedience.
"The information which the Lord Mayor received from Ireland was that, soon after the girl had left her home, her father had emigrated, with many others, to Canada, for the purpose of seeking his fortune among the numberless adventurers who ran away from Irish turbulence and starvation at that period, and that he had sent back no intelligence to Ireland since his departure. In Donegal, however, a sister of the young woman was found to reside, who expressed great joy at hearing of her relation. The Lord Mayor gave the girl adequate means of defraying her expenses to Donegal."
Parliament was to meet on February 19th, and there was but scant time to prepare and furnish places for them to meet in. As these temporary premises have long since been consigned to limbo, and as even very little tradition remains of them, I may be pardoned for giving a short contemporary account of them, which contrasts forcibly with the beautiful palace in which our legislature is now housed.
"The approaches to the House of Lords are very limited; the Peers, as well as the King, must enter by the Royal doorway and gallery throughout the session, and both parties must enter the body of the house by the same doorway—namely, that at the end of the Royal Gallery, formerly opening into the Painted Chamber, now the House of Lords. Facing this doorway is the woolsack, and a very small one it is compared with its predecessor; and, immediately behind it, and to the right of the doorway, is stationed the throne, against that end of the House which abuts upon the Thames; this, like the woolsack, is of very diminished proportions, when contrasted with the grand and gorgeous affair in the former House of Lords, as may be inferred when it is stated that it is the identical throne constructed for George IV.'s Council Chamber in a room in Carlton House.
"The present House of Lords is remarkably narrow, as may be imagined from the fact that the cross benches (the arrangement of the old house being followed, though somewhat in miniature) will not conveniently accommodate three or four peers each. There are side galleries for the peers, approached by staircases in the body of the House, but in line with the bar. All the furniture, the forms, etc., are covered with crimson and brass binding, as was the case in the former House. There are six richly gilt chandeliers, suspended by long lacquered chains, for the purpose of lighting the House. Both Houses are to be heated by steam apparatus, similar to that used in King's College Chapel, etc. In the Lords the conductors appear in the House, but are neatly enclosed with iron casings: in the Commons the heat ascends through a large grating in the centre of the floor of the House.