mself at the bottom of it. He has taken the trouble to
write to all sorts of people, old friends and new, to exonerate
himself from the charge; but never was trouble more thrown away.
D'Orsay says that he carefully compared the (supposed) letter of
Shafto with one of Brougham's to him, and that they were
evidently written by the same hand. The paper, with all its
marks, was the same, together with various other minute
resemblances, leaving no doubt of the fact.

[9] [A letter from Brougham purporting to be from Mr.
Shafto was received by Mr. Alfred Montgomery, which
contained the particulars of Lord Brougham's death by a
carriage accident. Mr. Montgomery brought the letter to
Lady Blessington's at Gore House, where I happened to
be, and I confess we were all taken in by the hoax.
Montgomery went off in a post-chaise to break the news
to Lord Wellesley at Fernhill; and meeting Lord Alfred
Paget in Windsor Park, he sent the news to the Castle.
The trick was kept up for twenty-four hours, but the
next day I received a note from Brougham himself, full
of his usual spirits and vitality.--H.R.]

[Page Head: VIOLENCE OF THE TORIES.]

Next to this episode, Jemmy Bradshaw's speech at Canterbury has
attracted the greatest attention, and he has been for many days
the hero of newspaper discussion. This speech, which was a tissue
of folly and impertinence, but principally remarkable for a
personal attack of the most violent and indecent kind upon the
Queen, was received with shouts of applause at a Conservative
dinner, and reported with many compliments, and some gentle
reprehension by the Tory press. His example has since been
followed in a less offensive style by two others calling
themselves Tories--a Mr. Roby and a Mr. Escott. Of these rabid
and disloyal effusions, the Government papers have not failed to
make the most, by pointing out the disaffected and almost
treasonable character of modern Toryism when embittered by
exclusion from office; and there is no doubt that, contemptible
as the authors are, their senseless and disgusting exhibitions
are calculated to do great mischief; for, if no other evil
ensued, it is one of no small consequence to sour the mind of the
Queen still more against the whole Tory party, and fasten upon
her an impression which it will be difficult to efface, that she
is odious and he