of an ancient and glorious race, who cut
their way to distinction with their swords on the field of battle. Roger
de Mandeville, bearer of the ducal standard at the red fight of
Hastings, was the first of my name who set foot upon English ground.
Since then, there is not an era in the history of our country which does
not bear witness to some achievement of the stalwart Mandevilles. The
Crusades--Cressy--Poitiers--and--pardon me, kinsman--Flodden, were the
theatres of our renown.

"I dare not trust myself to speak of the broad lands and castles which
we once possessed. These have long since passed away from us. A
Birmingham artisan, whose churl ancestor would have deemed it an honour
to run beside the stirrup of my forefathers, now dwells in the hall of
the Mandeville. The spear is broken, and the banner mouldered. Nothing
remains, save in the chancel of the roofless church a recumbent marble
effigy, with folded hands, of that stout Sir Godfrey of Mandeville who
stormed the breach of Ascalon!

"I was heir to nothing but the name. Of my early struggles I need not
tell you. A proud and indomitable heart yet beat within this bosom; and
though some of the ancient nobility of England, who knew and lamented my
position, were not backward in their offers, I could not bring myself in
any one instance to accept of eleemosynary assistance. Even the colours
which were spontaneously offered to me by the great Captain of the age,
were rejected, though not ungratefully. Had there been war, Britain
should have found me foremost in her ranks as a volunteer, but I could
not wear the livery of a soldier so long as the blade seemed
undissolubly soldered to the sheath. I spurned at the empty frivolity of
the mess-room, and despised every other bivouac save that upon the field
of battle.

"In brief, gentlemen, I preferred the field of science, which was still
open to me, and became an engineer. Mr Cutts, whose great acquirements
and brilliant genius have raised him to such eminence in the
profession"--here Cutts made a grateful salaam--"can bear testimony to
the humble share of talent I have laid at the national disposal; and if
you, my kinsman, are connected with any of the incipient enterprises in
the north, I should be proud of an opportunity of showing you that the
genius of a Mandeville can be applied as well to the arts of peace as to
the stormy exercises of war. But even Mr Cutts does not know how
strangely my labours have been i