waistcoat, not my head, I suffered. "I am not well, but I will not out," I soliloquized, with Lepidus“ dó, foi Tò πTEρón" I would have added, had I dared. Still the neck of the banquet was broken-Fitzgerald's chair was not yet empty,-could we hold out perhaps a quarter of an hour longer our reputation was established; guess then my horror, when the Icelandic doctor, shouting his favourite dogma by way of battle cry, "Si trigintis guttis, morbum curare velis, erras," gave the signal for an unexpected onslaught, and the twenty guests poured down on me in succession. I really thought I should have run away from the house; but the true family blood, I suppose, began to show itself, and with a calmness almost frightful, I received them one by one. After this began the public toasts. Although up to this time I had kept a certain portion of my wits about me, the subsequent hours of the entertainment became henceforth developed in a dreamy mystery. I can perfectly recall the look of the sheaf of glasses that stood before me, six in number; I could draw the pattern of each: I remember feeling a lazy wonder they should always be full, though I did nothing but empty them, and at last solved the phenomenon by concluding I had become a kind of Danaid, whose punishment, not whose sentence, had been reversed: then suddenly I felt as if I were disembodied, a distant spectator of my own performances, and of the feast at which my person remained seated. The voices of my host, of the rector, of the chief-justice, became thin and low, as though they reached me through a whispering tube; and when I rose to speak it was as to an audience in another sphere, and in a language of another state of being: yet, however unintelligible to myself, I must have been in some sort understood, for at the end of each sentence cheers, faint as the roar of waters on a far-off strand, floated towards me; and if I am to believe a report of the proceedings subsequently shown us, I must have become polyglot in my cups. According to that report it seems the Governor threw off (I wonder he did not do something else), with the queen's health in French, to which I responded in the same language. Then the rector, in English, proposed my health,―under the circumstances a cruel mockery, but to which, ill as I was, I responded very gallantly by drinking to the beaux yeux 1 Antony and Cleopatra. of the Countess. Then somebody else drank success to Great Britain, and I see it was followed by really a very learned discourse by Lord D. in honour of the ancient Icelanders; during which he alluded to their discovery of America, and Columbus' visit. Then came a couple of speeches in Icelandic, after which the bishop, in a magnificent Latin oration of some twenty minutes, a second time proposes my health; to which, utterly at my wits' end, I had the audacity to reply in the same language. As it is fit so great an effort of oratory should not perish, I send you some of its choicest specimens: 66 Bibere, viri illustres, res est, quæ in omnibus terris, 'domum venit ad hominum negotia et pectora:'2 (1) requirit haustum longum, haustum fortem, et haustum omnes simul :'(2) ut canit poeta, 'unum tactum Naturæ totum orbem facit consanguineum,' (3) et hominis natura est-bibere (4). "Viri illustres, alterum est sentimentum equaliter universale: terra communis super quam septentrionales et meridionales, eâdem enthusiasmâ convenire possunt: est necesse quod id nominarem? Ad pulchrum sexum devotio! "Amor regit palatium, castra, lucum:' (5) Dubito sub quo capite vestram jucundam civitatem numerare debeam. Palatium? non regem! castra? non milites! lucum? non ullam arborem habetis! Tamen Cupido vos dominat haud aliter quam alios,-et virginum Islandarum pulchritudo per omnes regiones cognita est. "Bibamus salutem earum, et confusionem ad omnes bacularios: speramus quod eæ caræ et benedictæ creaturæ invenient tot maritos quot velint, quòd geminos quottanis habeant, et quod earum filiæ, maternum exemplum 2 As the happiness of these quotations seemed to produce a very pleasing effect on my auditors, I subjoin a translation of them for the benefit of the unlearned: 1. "Comes home to men's business and bosoms."— Paterfamilias, Times. 2. "A long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together." -Nelson at the Nile. 3. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." -Jeremy Bentham. 4. Apothegm by the late Lord Mountcoffeehouse. 5. "Love rules the court, the camp, the grove."— Venerable Bede. sequentes, gentem Islandicam perpetuent in | about to send out as England's representative sæcula sæculorum." The last words mechanically rolled out, in the same 66 ore rotundo" with which the poor old Dean of Christchurch used to finish his Gloria, &c., in the cathedral. Then followed more speeches, a great chinking of glasses,-a Babel of conversation, -a kind of dance round the table, where we successively gave each alternate hand, as in the last figure of the Lancers, -a hearty embrace from the Governor,―and finally-silence, daylight, and fresh air, as we stumbled forth into the street. ON IRISHMEN AS RULERS.1 to this country one of the most promising among the younger generation of our public men, but that the queen herself was about to intrust to the keeping of the people of Canada her own daughter. If you desired any illustration of the respect, the affection, the confidence with which you are regarded by your fellow-subjects and by your sovereign at home, what greater proof could you require than this, or what more gratifying, more delicate, more touching recognition could have rewarded your never-failing love and devotion for the mother country and its ruler? But though parliament and the citizens of Canada may well be proud of the confidence thus reposed in them, believe me when I tell you that, quite apart from these especial considerations, you Gentlemen,-I hardly know in what terms I may well be congratulated on the happy choice which has been made in the person of Lord am to reply to the address I have just listened Lorne for the future Governor-general of to, so signal is the honour which you have Canada. It has been my good fortune to be conferred upon me. That a whole province, as large, as important, as flourishing as many ties of the closest personal friendship. Himself connected all my life long with his family by a European kingdom, should erect into an emI have known, I may say, almost from his boybassy the mayors of its cities,-the delegates of its urban and rural municipalities, and hood, and a more conscientious, high-minded, or better qualified viceroy could not have been despatch them on a journey of several hunselected. Brought up under exceptionally dred miles, to convey to a humble individual like myself an expression of the personal good-has profited to the utmost by the advantages fortunate conditions, it is needless to say he will of the constituencies they represent, is a circumstance unparalleled in the history of Canada, or of any other colony. To stand as I now do in the presence of so many distinguished persons, who have put themselves to great personal inconvenience on my account, only adds to my embarrassment. And yet, gentlemen, I cannot pretend not to be delighted with such a genuine demonstration of regard on the part of the large-hearted inhabitants of the great province in whose name you have addressed me; for, quite apart from the personal gratification I experience, you are teaching all future administrators of our affairs a lesson which you may be sure they will gladly lay to heart, since it will show them with how rich a reward you are ready to pay whatever slight exertions it may be within their power to make on your behalf. And when in the history of your Dominion could such a proof of your generosity be more opportunely shown? A few weeks ago the heart of every man and woman in Canada was profoundly moved by the intelligence, not only that the government of Great Britain was A speech to the municipalities of Ontario, delivered at Quebec, Sept. 5, 1878, in reply to their joint address. placed within his reach, many of which will have fitted him in an especial degree for his present post. His public school and college education, his experience of the House of Commons, his large personal acquaintance with the representatives of all that is most distinguished in the intellectual world of the United States, his literary and artistic tastes, his foreign travel, will all combine to render him intelligently sympathetic with every phase and aspect of your national life. Above all, he comes of a good Whig stock-that is to say, of a family whose prominence in history is founded upon the sacrifices they have made in the cause of constitutional liberty. When a couple fold as martyrs in the cause of political and of a man's ancestors have perished on the scafreligious freedom, you may be sure there is little likelihood of their descendant seeking to the crown, upon the privileges of parliament encroach, when acting as the representative of or the independence of the people. As for your future princess, it would not become me to enlarge upon her merits-she will soon be amongst you, taking all hearts by storm by the grace, the suavity, the sweet simplicity of her manners, life, and conversation. Gentle |