smen. The names of Burke, Peel, Gladstone, and
Balfour, quite recently, will readily be recalled in this connection.
In the little island the aspirant to legislative honors has several
hundred constituencies from which to choose, or be chosen, while
in the larger America his political fortunes are usually bound
up in his own residence district.

Upon the roll of the House in the new Congress, called in
special session in March, 1879, in addition to some heretofore
mentioned, were names well known to the country. Of these none is
more worthy of honorable mention than that of the Hon. Levi P.
Morton of New York. In the business world his name was a synonym for
integrity. The head of a great banking house, he was almost as
well known in the principal cities of Europe as in the great city of
his residence. At the time of his first election to Congress
Mr. Morton was, by appointment of the President, an honorary
commissioner to the Paris Exposition. At the close of his legislative
career he held successively the honored positions of Ambassador to
France, Vice-President of the United States, and Governor of New
York. In Congress, Mr. Morton was the able representative of a
great constituency; as chief executive of his State his name is
worthy of mention with the most eminent of those who have been
called to that exalted station; as ambassador to a foreign court
the honor of his country was ever in safe keeping; as Vice-President,
he was the model presiding officer over the greatest deliberative body
known to men.

One of the brightest members of the New York delegation was the
Hon. James W. Covert of Flushing. Altogether he served ten years in
the House, and became in time one of its leading members. He was an
excellent lawyer, a delightful associate, and an able and ready debater.
That he was gifted with a touch of the humorous will appear from the
following. The House was passing through the agony of an all-night
session. Confusion reigned supreme. During it all, Mr. Shelley, from
one of the Gulf States, stood at his desk and repeatedly made the point
of order upon Covert, Springer, Kenna, McKenzie, and others, as they
successively addressed the Chair, that "The gentleman is not speaking
from his desk." The point of order was as repeatedly sustained by
the Speaker, the rules requiring members to address the Chair only
from their respective desks. The confusion at length became so
great that many members, in