hite hat, with the straggling black trousers which reach about
half-way down the leg of his boots, who is leaning against the
meat-screen, apparently deluding himself into the belief that he is
thinking about something, is a splendid sample of a Member of the House
of Commons concentrating in his own person the wisdom of a constituency.
Observe the wig, of a dark hue but indescribable colour, for if it be
naturally brown, it has acquired a black tint by long service, and if it
be naturally black, the same cause has imparted to it a tinge of rusty
brown; and remark how very materially the great blinker-like spectacles
assist the expression of that most intelligent face. Seriously speaking,
did you ever see a countenance so expressive of the most hopeless extreme
of heavy dulness, or behold a form so strangely put together? He is no
great speaker: but when he _does_ address the House, the effect is
absolutely irresistible.

The small gentleman with the sharp nose, who has just saluted him, is a
Member of Parliament, an ex-Alderman, and a sort of amateur fireman. He,
and the celebrated fireman's dog, were observed to be remarkably active
at the conflagration of the two Houses of Parliament--they both ran up
and down, and in and out, getting under people's feet, and into
everybody's way, fully impressed with the belief that they were doing a
great deal of good, and barking tremendously. The dog went quietly back
to his kennel with the engine, but the gentleman kept up such an
incessant noise for some weeks after the occurrence, that he became a
positive nuisance. As no more parliamentary fires have occurred,
however, and as he has consequently had no more opportunities of writing
to the newspapers to relate how, by way of preserving pictures he cut
them out of their frames, and performed other great national services, he
has gradually relapsed into his old state of calmness.

That female in black--not the one whom the Lord's-Day-Bill Baronet has
just chucked under the chin; the shorter of the two--is 'Jane:' the Hebe
of Bellamy's. Jane is as great a character as Nicholas, in her way. Her
leading features are a thorough contempt for the great majority of her
visitors; her predominant quality, love of admiration, as you cannot fail
to observe, if you mark the glee with which she listens to something the
young Member near her mutters somewhat unintelligibly in her ear (for his
speech is rather thick from some cause or o