This revolting figure,
covered with ashes, dirt, and bleeding voluntary wounds, may the next
moment ascend the Sudder bench, and in a suit between a Hindoo and an
Englishman think it an act of sanctity to decide against law in favour
of the professor of the true faith." Another gentleman, Mr. Longueville
Clarke, reminded "the tyrant" that

There yawns the sack, and yonder rolls the sea.

"Mr. Macaulay may treat this as an idle threat; but his knowledge of
history will supply him with many examples of what has occurred when
resistance has been provoked by milder instances of despotism than the
decimation of a people." This pretty explicit recommendation to lynch a
Member of Council was received with rapturous applause.

At length arose a Captain Biden, who spoke as follows: "Gentlemen, I
come before you in the character of a British seaman, and on that ground
claim your attention for a few moments. Gentlemen, there has been
much talk during the evening of laws, and regulations, and rights,
and liberties; but you all seem to have forgotten that this is the
anniversary of the glorious Battle of Waterloo. I beg to propose, and I
call on the statue of Lord Cornwallis and yourselves to join me in
three cheers for the Duke of Wellington and the Battle of Waterloo." The
audience, who by this time were pretty well convinced that no grievance
which could possibly result under the Black Act could equal the horrors
of a crowd in the Town Hall of Calcutta during the latter half of June,
gladly caught at the diversion, and made noise enough to satisfy even
the gallant orator. The business was brought to a hurried close, and the
meeting was adjourned till the following week.

But the luck of Macaulay's adversaries pursued them still. One of the
leading speakers at the adjourned meeting, himself a barrister, gave
another barrister the lie, and a tumult ensued which Captain Biden
in vain endeavoured to calm by his favourite remedy. "The opinion at
Madras, Bombay, and Canton," said he,--and in so saying he uttered the
only sentence of wisdom which either evening had produced,--"is that
there is no public opinion at Calcutta but the lawyers. And now,--who
has the presumption to call it a burlesque?--let's give three cheers for
the Battle of Waterloo, and then I'll propose an amendment which shall
go into the whole question." The Chairman, who certainly had earned
the vote of thanks for "his very extraordinary patience," which Captain