to his
subject the capital exclamation with which Mr. Lucy endowed him. When he
saw a deaf member get his ear-trumpet into position in order to listen
to a tedious orator, he remarked (according to Toby): "What a pity it is
to see a man thus wasting his natural advantages!" And Lowe has had the
credit of it ever since.

[Illustration: H. W. LUCY.
(_From a Photograph by Walery, Limited._)]

No one in the House knows its members so well as Mr. Lucy; no one out of
it is so well acquainted with its procedure; and when for a short time
he reluctantly filled the editorial chair of the "Daily News," he was
unhappy till he got back to Toby's "kennel" in the gallery of the House
of Commons.

But the Essence of Parliament as distilled by "Toby" is by no means the
only, hardly even the most voluminous of Mr. Lucy's _Punch_ work. In the
recess he is a constant contributor as Mr. Burnand's deputy in the
character of _Punch's_ reviewer--"The Baron de Book-Worms," through
whose personality "My Baronite" appears from time to time; while among
his serial articles have been "The Letter-bag of Toby, M.P.," and the
set of Interviews with Celebrities at Home, parodies of the "World's"
articles, which delighted none so much as Edmund Yates himself.[48] Mr.
Lucy joined the Table on his return from Japan in 1884.

But it is as "Toby" that he has gained most of his popularity. He showed
the way about the House of Commons to Mr. Harry Furniss; and, up to the
withdrawal of the latter, his "Diary" was always illustrated by that
artist. Later on Mr. Edward J. Reed took the place Mr. Furniss resigned,
and the pair continue to set before the world their humorous
versions--perversions, it would be hardly fair to say--of Parliamentary
proceedings. Mr. Lucy's touch is light and original, imparting an
appearance of interest and entertainment to the dullest debate, and of
verisimilitude to the most doubtful statements. Yet the "Diary" is not
without its value as a record, while it remains an amusing commentary
upon the work of the Session, and an entirely inoffensive caricature of
the men and speeches with whom it deals.

In 1884, when the entertainer's platform was offering inducements
superior to those of the stage, Mr. George Grossmith began a series of
sketches in _Punch_, entitled "Very Trying," the fourth article of which
contained a skit of Mr. Flowers, the Police Magistrate at Bow Street,
under the heading of "The Good-humoured Magistrate,"