"dodges" were not always
successful; and O'Connell himself, and his colleague, Mr. Ruthven,
secured their own seats by comparatively small majorities. At the
previous election O'Connell had obtained a majority of 1,549, and Mr.
Ruthven of 1,490 above the highest Conservative candidate: at the
election in 1835, O'Connell's majority had fallen to 217, and Mr.
Ruthven's to 169. The "Irish agitator" was manifestly no favourite with
HB, who depicted him as the comet of 1835. Comets being supposed by the
vulgar to portend disaster, it is represented as leaving Ireland in a
flame, and passing over St. George's Channel to exercise a malign
influence on peaceful England. The head of course is that of O'Connell,
while the tail is studded with the countenances of the Irish members who
made up his "following." In a previous sketch he had figured as the Wolf
to Lord John Russell's "Little Red Riding Hood," in allusion to a
statement made by the opposition journals that the Government had made a
league with the restless agitator with the view of securing his support
in the House of Commons. We have heard something very like this lately,
in relation to what is now known as the "Kilmainham Treaty."

SIR ROBERT PEEL.

The rapidity with which John Doyle caught an inspiration from a few
chance words in a speech, may be aptly illustrated by the manner in
which he served Sir Robert Peel. On the occasion of his being installed
Lord Rector of Glasgow University, in November, 1836, the distinguished
statesman made a speech to his patrons, in which he meant to tell them
that, admiring Scotland and Scottish scenery, he thought the best mode
of seeing both was on horseback instead of travelling in a public or
private conveyance. He expressed the idea, however, in the following
round-about fashion:--"I wished," he said, "to see something of Scotland
which I could not have seen from the windows of a luxurious carriage; I
wished to see other habits and manners of life than those which the
magnificent hospitable castles of the nobility presented. Yes," he
continued, "in Glasgow I hired an _humble but faithful steed_; I
travelled partly on horseback and partly on foot through almost every
county that lies southern of Inverness; I have read the map of Scotland
upon the great scale of nature, from the summits of Ben Nevis and Ben
Lomond; I have visited that island whence savage and roaming bands
derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessings o