about sixty feet by forty, with three windows towards the Thames at one end, high above the floor; the public gallery, where I was, at the other end, facing the window, and about 15 or 18 feet above the floor; a narrower gallery on each side, for the use of members when the house is too full below, or they feel inclined to take a nap, which they do with great intrepidity, in full view of the public in the gallery, arranging the cushions before they lie down, and making a comfortable pillow for their honourable heads. The chair of the Speaker (who does not speak except on points of form and order) faces the gallery, and has the windows behind, or rather above it. Five rows of benches, covered with green leather, are disposed in an amphitheatre round the room : the walls are wainscotted with dark wood; a great lustre hangs from the ceiling in the middle; three chandeliers on each side, against the galleries. The Speaker is dressed in a black gown, and an enormous white powdered wig. At his feet are two persons in the same costume, seated before a large table covered with books and papers; the mace, an essential article, lies on the table whenever the Speaker presides, and under the table when the House is in committee. The right hand of the Speaker is occupied by the ministers and their adherents, the

left by the opposition; but this order is not obli gatory. Here is a sketch of the general appearance of the house from the gallery where I sat. A tall, slender, and genteel-looking man rose to give notice of a motion he intended to make next week, respecting an act of oppression and cruelty of a captain of a ship of war against one of his sailors. He said only a few words :-This was Sir Francis Burdett, a very notorious gentle man at present. The Walcheren business was then taken up ;-General T. spoke against the ministers; General C. and Mr R. for them; all at great length, and, as it appeared to me, very heavily. Then several young members came forward, that is to say, spoke, which is done with

out leaving their places, and merely standing up; Lord P. Lord G. G. and Mr F.-this last member spoke with great vehemence in favour of ministers, all three with a sort of schoolboy oratory, well enough as a lesson for practice, but to no sort of purpose as to persuading or changing any opinion. A veteran member arose next, old and toothless, and speaking like a Jew, uncouthly and carelessly, but ardently, and with that seeming self-conviction, which is among the very first requisites for eloquence. He stepped forward on the floor towards the table, and used animated gestures, a little à la Françoise,* or at least very different from the English mode of oratory-Mr Grattan is Irish. All this lasted till eleven. I felt quite weary; my legs cramped from sitting so long, for you are forbidden to stand up for a moment except to go away; and, giving up the point, I went home, traversing the dark and solitary immensity of that gigantic hall of Westminster, which is 275 feet long, and 74 wide, and at this time of night, feebly lighted by two or three lamps only,

* In France there is no public speaking unstudied, and the action, studied also, aims at grace and dignity; here, whenever used, it is the expression of earnestness and warmth. The sort of gesture is generally that of striking down the clenched fist; in France, that of waving the open hand.

resembles the antichamber of the infernal regions. It is, in fact, the antichamber of the courts of justice, the doors of which are distributed all round, as well as the antichamber of Parliament. It is here that the great trials by impeachment are carried on ;—here that the regicide sentence was pronounced against Charles the First ;-and it was here also that Richard the Second entertained ten thousand guests, who have been dead these four hundred years.

This morning I have learned that Mr Canning and Mr Whitbread spoke after I had left the house, which sat till two o'clock in the morning! I regret much not to have heard these two speakers, although the subject (Walcheren) is certainly quite worn out. I shall make another effort to hear them; but the sacrifice is great,-two of three hours standing on the stairs,—then to scale the breach, and at last to sit motionless and cramped on a board eight or ten hours, hearing, perhaps, schoolboys and prosers, and at last, on the eve of obtaining the recompence of so much patience and suffering, to be turned out like a dog at the motion of any one member who may call for the standing order to clear the gallery, without assigning any motive. Mr Windham, who is a great supporter of the privilege of turning out the public at pleasure, and has got into a scrape on that account with the public and with

the reporters, is one of those I wished most to hear, especially as he can only be heard and not read, the reporters having formed a league not to report his speeches.

"Ill est juste

Qu'on soit puni par où l'on a péché."

This is no insignificant retaliation on Mr Windham, who liked as well as any one to see his speeches appear to advantage in the newspapers; and is said more than once to have revised the reports made of them before printing.

Mr Windham is nearly the last survivor of a certain class of statesmen who have adorned the British senate during this reign. Fox, Burke, and Pitt, were men of talents and characters to tally different from each other; and Mr Windham, one of the great luminaries of this bright constellation, is different from the other three. They however all began, or were, for some early part of their political life, in the opposition; they were more or less reformers. Two of them aimed at giving to Parliament a more popular base, and more purely representative; none, however, acted upon these principles when in power; and all, with the exception of Mr Fox, renounced the faith of their youth openly. I am inclined not to think favourably either of a young man, who