Turn then, my son, where to thy hallow’d eye
Yon doors unfold—Let none profane he nigh!
It seems as if the poet, in the preceding descriptions, had purposely stooped to amuse himself with the Gomgom Pearson, Hucsteria, Major Scott, Mr. Northcote, and the Reverend author of the Scrutineer, that he might rise again with the more striking dignity on this great occasion.
MERLIN now leads ROLLO to the centre of the House,
Conventus trahit in medios, turbamque sonantem.
He points out to him the gallery for strangers to sit in, and members to sleep in; the bar below, and the clock above. Of the clock he observes,
When this shalt point, the hour of question come,
Mutes shall find voice, and Orators be dumb.
This, if in lengthen’d parle the night they pass,
Shall furnish still his opening to DUNDAS;
To PITT, when “hear-hims” flag, shall oft supply
The chear-trap trick of stale apology;
And, strange to tell! in Nature’s spite, provoke
Hot ARDEN once to blunder at a joke.
The beauty of these lines will be instantly perceived by all who have witnessed the debates; as they cannot but have remarked, how perpetually “the late hour of night” occupies the exordiums of Mr. DUNDAS, after eleven o’clock; and how frequently it is introduced by Mr. PITT as a hint, for what is called chearing, whenever his arguments and invectives are received by his young friends with the unparliamentary compliment of sacred silence. The miracle of a jest from Mr. ARDEN, happened on the occasion of some Resolutions having passed between the hours of six and seven in the morning; for which reason the Attorney-General facetiously contended, that they were entitled to no respect, “as the house was then at sixes and sevens.” Any approximation to wit in debate, being perfectly unusual with this gentleman, however entertaining his friends may think him in private, our author very properly distinguishes this memorable attempt by the same kind of admiration, with which poets commonly mention some great prodigy—as for instance, of a cow’s speaking:
——pecudesque locutæ
Infandum!
We hope none of our readers will attribute to us the most distant intention of any invidious comparison.
The table, mace, &c. are next described, but these we shall pass over in silence, that we may get—where most who enter the House of Commons wish to get—to the TREASURY-BENCH,