d contemptuously. The orator instantly turned upon him.
"True," said he, "there may be a good deal of variety in that
procession. There may be the mummer as well as the priest; it may have
the mountebank selling his potions, and playing his tricks, as well as
the sacrificer with his axe--unless the ambition of the bloated
performer should prefer to combine the offices, and be at once the
butcher and the buffoon."

The hit was felt on all sides, and the laughter was unbounded. He then
rose, as was his custom, into a higher strain. "I can imagine that
procession," said he, "or rather, that triumph, of the principles of
change. Like the return of the classical Bacchus from his Indian
conquests, the demigod," and he now cast a look at Fox, "secure of
supremacy, exulting in his prowess, and thinking the civilized world at
his feet; but not without the companionship of his trusty Silenus"--and
here he turned his glance on the noble lord--"that veteran follower,
whose ambition is limited to his cups, and the vigour of whose fidelity
is shown only in the constancy of his intoxication; the whole procession
being drawn by the wild lords of the forest and the wilderness, who,
harnessed as they may be for the moment, will no sooner find their food
stinted, than they will resume the natural instincts of the lion and the
tiger, turn on their drivers and devour them.

"But, sir," he exclaimed, turning to the chair, "I have higher topics,
and to those I now call the attention of the representatives of England.
I have alluded to the revolutionary temple. I here have its deity." With
these words, he plucked from his bosom a large dagger, held it for a
moment up to the light, and then flung it at the foot of the table. The
astonishment, and even the alarm, of the whole assembly was beyond
description. They all started from their seats, as if assassination had
stood before them in a visible shape. Some crowded round Burke, some
seized the dagger, which was eventually carried to the Speaker, and
became the object of universal curiosity. All was confusion for a
considerable time. At length Burke, in a few words delivered in his most
impressive tone, explained the phenomenon. "That dagger," said he, "is
one of thousands, perhaps of millions, which the preachers of philosophy
are now forging for popular conviction. You see that by its construction
it is equally fitted for the head of a pike, or for a dagger--equally
serviceable in tearing dow