ips are proceeding a portion of the charge which he actually delivered
to the jury at the trial at Kingston assizes. Even the duke, impassive
as he appeared, must have felt the justice of this unsparing but
admirable sarcasm.

Another member of the royal family who frequently figures in the
"sketches" is the Duke of Sussex. He was a man of large frame, and as
remarkable for the blackness of his whiskers as the Duke of Cumberland
was conspicuous for the bleached appearance of these hirsute adornments.
At a meeting of the council of the London University, he is reported to
have said that for the promotion of anatomical science he should have no
personal objection to dedicate his own body after death to the College
of Surgeons for the purposes of dissection. This hint was enough of
course for HB, and his royal highness accordingly figures in a
contemporary satire as _A great Subject_ "_Dedicated to the Royal
College of Surgeons_."

SIR FRANCIS BURDETT.

Another prominent personage of HB's time, and a singular instance of the
change which frequently takes place in the political convictions of
public men, was Sir Francis Burdett. Commencing his career as an ardent
radical and reformer intolerant of abuses, he finished it and astonished
his former supporters by being returned for Westminster in the
Conservative interest. The political conduct of this once celebrated man
is of so unusual a character that a short recapitulation of his career
seems necessary, in order that the reader may understand the satires we
are about to describe. Notwithstanding his expressed views in support of
absolute purity of election, his own election for Middlesex in 1802-4,
is said--what with the expenses and subsequent litigation--to have cost
him upwards of one hundred thousand pounds. On the 5th of May, 1807, he
was challenged by and fought a duel with Mr. James Paull, on Wimbledon
Common, the cause of quarrel being Sir Francis's refusal to act as
chairman at a gathering of Paull's supporters at the Crown and Anchor
Tavern, Westminster, in April. The duel terminated in both the
principals being seriously wounded. The same year he was returned to
Parliament to serve as member for Westminster, which constituency he
continued to represent for nearly thirty years. Perhaps the greatest
event of his life was his committal to the Tower under the Speaker's
warrant for a libellous letter published in _Cobbett's Political
Register_, of 24th March,