consideration in each case as it arose ; but,
instead of this, the committee quoted the opinion
of the Peers, and gave their own indistinct
notions of the power of the law courts ; and
thus their labours did not help on this vexed
and still undecided question."

In Easter term, Sir Francis Burdett brought
actions against the Speaker, the Serjeant-at-Arms,
and Lord Moira, the lieutenant of the Tower. In
all of these, as might naturally be supposed where
the judges were ministers' men, he was defeated.

On one occasion, Mr. Sheriff Wood and
twenty-eight carriages full of the livery of
London went to the Tower to present the thanks
of the common hall to Sir Francis. The horses
and the servants were decorated with blue
ribbons. Soldiers with fixed bayonets were placed
to keep the populace from entering the Tower
gate. On their return, the mob took the
horses out of Mr. Wood's and Mr. Wardle's
carriages and drew them back to the Guildhall.

Nearly all the public bodies sent addresses
of thanks to Romilly, Lord Erskine, and Mr.
Whitbread. There was hardly any gathering
of men, however small, says Miss Martineau,
in which the privilege question was not argued.
Lord Erskine had the honour of meeting the
Prince of Wales at dinner one day, when the
argument on the subject grew hot between
them. Lord Erskine said that the principles
he advocated were those which had seated the
family of his royal highness on the throne;
the prince foolishly retorted that they were
principles which would unseat any family from
any throne. The affair came to an end by the
natural opportunity of the prorogation of
parliament on the 21st of June. For some days
before, propositions had been made by Burdett's
friends for such a triumphal procession as had
been seldom seen. Placards on the walls
announced the order of the pageantry, and caricatures
at the print-shops represented Burdett as
the rising sun and John Bull watching him from
a bed of roses.

That June daybreak saw the streets crowded
from the Tower to Piccadilly. The windows
were full, the roofs were close packed. There
were scaffoldings and waggons everywhere for
spectators. The Blue cockades bloomed out by the
thousand. Blue flags were borne through the
streets, past the sullen Horse Guards, who
waited sternly for their revenge. Blue silk
pennons fluttered from the windows. At the Tower
gates, at two o'clock, three hundred horsemen,
friends of Burdett, waited to escort him home.
Still Sir Francis did not come. About four
o'clock, a soldier on the ramparts put a speaking-
trumpet to his mouth, and all the faces on Tower-
hill turned towards him. He repeated a few
words several times; but those who heard them
did not believe him. What he said was, " He's
gone by water." No attention was paid to it.
Presently one of the constables told the people
near him that Burdett had been gone some
time, but he was rebuked for saying such a
thing, just to get the people to go away. At
half-past four three placards were hung out
over the gates of the Tower, inscribed :

"Sir Francis Burdett left the Tower by water,
at half-past three o'clock."

The committee, at first confounded, resolved
to still have the procession, and it was an
imposing one. " Gale Jones appeared on the roof
of a hackney-coach, haranguing the crowd very
actively, but amidst too much noise to be heard.
He had been ejected from prison by stratagem,
after declaring that he would never go out
spontaneously. The crowd was nearly dispersed
by ten o'clock, but that in Piccadilly would not
go away till the neighbours had illuminated; and
soon, nearly all London was shining out at the
windows."

Some irritable people were angry at Sir
Francis; not because he had resolved not to join a
procession, which might have led to riot and loss
of life, but because he did not sooner announce
his intention, which would only have caused
mischief in some other direction. On the 31st,
a tremendous public dinner was given to Sir
Francis at the Crown and Anchor, and the
populace dragged his carriage home afterwards.

The rest of Burdett's career was consistent
with the beginning: he was always staunch
for liberty and toleration. He resisted the
property tax, and fought for reform. In
August, 1819, writing bitterly and strongly
against the cruel onslaught made by the military
at Peterloo, Burdett was tried for libel, and
sentenced to three months' imprisonment in the
King's Bench, and a fine of two thousand
pounds. His final struggles were in favour
of Catholic emancipation.

By some historians Sir Francis Burdett's
fine character has been stigmatised as sullied
by excessive vanity. These writers have surely
forgotten that the patriot toils for others, not
for himself, and that the greenest leaf in the
laurel chaplet that he fights for and finally wears
is the applause of his fellow-citizens. Sir Francis
never deserted the old flag; but in later life he
did not perhaps move as fast as the younger
vanguard. There have been many gangs at work on
the great railway of human progress. Some wear
out, and new men replace them; many begin
the labour, and do not live to see it finished.
But whatever old abuse there is to cut through,
or whatever old ruin is carted off before the
line is done, there will never work upon it, be
sure, a more chivalrous Englishman than Sir
Francis Burdett.

A MODEL IDEA.

MY professional duties oblige me to pass
some few hours every week at a certain town.
Although I had been there often, I had never
bestowed more than a look on a large ugly red-
brick house, built on a high hill rising
immediately behind this town. Of the said rising
ground the railway station is the principal
feature, but the town proclaims itself as having its
own special interest to the neighbourhood,
inasmuch as a number of tall chimneys mark it as a
factory town.

One forenoon I was looking at this large red