not reeking from Oxford, (groans,) that hotbed of pedantic ignorance and venerable bigotry, (hootings,) surrounded by a dismal and lurid halo of superstition?" (groaning and hooting.)

Finer and finer was Mr Mudflint becoming every moment as he warmed with his subject-but unfortunately his audience was beginning very unequivocally to intimate that they were quite satisfied with what they had already heard. A cry, for instance, issued from the crowd-" the rest of my discoorse next Sunday!" -for they knew that they were being kept all this while from one of their greatest favourites, Mr Going Gone, who had also himself been latterly rather frequently and significantly winking his eye at those before him, and shrugging his shoulders. Mr Mudflint, therefore, with feelings of vivid vexation, pique, and envy, concluded rather abruptly by proposing TITTLEBAT TITMOUSE, ESQUIRE, of YATTON, as a fit and proper person to represent them in Parliament. Up went hats into the air, and shouts of the most joyous and enthusiastic description rent the air for several minutes. Then took off his hat the jolly Mr Going Gone -a signal for roars of laughter, and cries of coarse and droll welcome, in expectancy of fun. Nor were they disappointed. He kept them in good-humour and fits of laughter during the whole of his "address;" and though destitute of any pretence to refinement, I must at the same time say, that there were to be detected in it no traces of ill-nature. He concluded by seconding the nomination of Mr Titmouse, amidst tumultuous cheers; and after waiting for some few minutes, in order that they might subside, Mr Gold took off his hat, and essayed to address the crowd. Now he really was, what he looked, an old man of unaffected and very great good-humour, and a benevolence which was extensive, and systematic. He had only the week before distributed soup, blankets, coals, and potatoes to two hundred poor families in the borough, even as he had done at that period of the year, for the preceding quarter of a century. No tale of distress, indeed, was ever told him in vain, unless palpably fictitious and fraudulent. The moment that his bare head, scantily covered with grey hairs, was visible, there arose, at a given signal from Mr Barnabas Bloodsuck, a dreadful hissing, hooting, and groaning from all parts of the

crowd. If he appeared disposed to persevere in addressing the two or three persons immediately around him, that only infuriated the mob against the poor old man, who bore it all, however, with great good-humour and fortitude. But it was in vain. After some twenty minutes spent in useless efforts to make himself audible, he concluded in mere dumb show, by proposing THE HONOURABLE GEOFFREY LOVEL DElamere, at the mention of whose name there again arose a perfect tempest of howling, hissing, groaning, and hooting. Then Mr Milnthorpe came forward, determined not to be "put down." He was a very tall and powerfully built man; bold and determined, with a prodigious power of voice, and the heart of a lion. "Now, lads, I'm ready to try which can tire the other out first!" he shouted in a truly stentorian voice, heard over all their uproar, which it redoubled. How vain the attempt! How ridiculous the challenge! Confident of his lungs, he smiled good-humouredly at the hissing and bellowing mass before him, and for nearly half an hour persevered in his attempts to make himself heard. At length, however, without his having in the slightest degree succeeded, his pertinacity began to irritate the crowd who, in fact, felt themselves being bullied; and that no crowd, that ever I saw, or heard of, can bear for one instant; and what is one against so many? Hundreds of fists were held up and shaken at him. A missile of some sort or another was flung at him, though it missed him; and then the returning officer advised him to desist from his attempts, lest mischief should ensue; on which he shouted at the top of his voice, "I second Mr Delamere!" and, amidst immense groaning and hissing, replaced his hat on his head, thereby owning himself vanquished; which the mob also perceiving, they burst into loud and longcontinued laughter.

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Now, Mr Titmouse!" said the returning officer, addressing that gentleman: who on hearing the words, turned as white as a sheet, and felt very much disposed to be sick. He pulled out of his coat-pocket a well-worn little roll of paper, on which was the speech which Mr Gammon had prepared for him, as I have already intimated; and with a shaking hand he unrolled it, casting at its contents a glance-momentary and despairing.

What then would that little fool have given for memory, voice, and manner enough to "speak the speech that had been set down for him!" He cast a dismal look over his shoulder at Mr Gammon, and took off his hat-Sir Harkaway clapping him on the back, exclaiming, "Now for't, lad-have at 'em, and away never fear!" The moment that he stood bareheaded, and prepared to address the writhing mass of faces before him, he was greeted with a prodigious shout, while hats were some of them waved, and others flung into the air. It was, indeed, several minutes before the uproar abated in the least. With fearful rapidity, however, every species of noise and interruption ceased-and a deadly silence prevailed. The sea of eager excited faces-all turned towards him-was a spectacle which might for a moment have shaken the nerves of even a man— had he been " unaccustomed to public speaking." The speech, which—brief and simple though it was-he had never been able to make his own, even after copying it out half-a-dozen times, and trying to learn it off for an hour or two daily during the preceding fortnight, he had now utterly forgotten; and he would have given a hundred pounds to retire at once from the contest, or sink unperceived under the floor of the hustings. "Begin! begin!" whispered Gammon earnestly. “Ya—a—s—but—what shall I say?" stammered Titmouse. "Your speech"-answered Gammon impatiently.

“I—I—'pon my-soul-I've-forgot every word of it! "Then read it," said Gammon in a furious whisper-" Good God, you'll be hissed off the hustings!-Read from the paper, do you hear!" he added, almost gnashing his teeth.

Matters having come to this fearful issue, 'Gentlemen," commenced Mr Titmouse faintly

"Hear him! Hear, hear!-Hush!-Sh! sh!" cried the impatient and expectant crowd.

Now, I happen to have a shorthand writer's notes of every word uttered by Mr Titmouse, together with an account of the reception it met with: and I shall here give the reader, first, Mr Titmouse's real, and secondly, Mr Titmouse's supposed speech, as it appeared two days afterwards in the columns of the Yorkshire Stingo.