Ministerial office, as yet, had been the Under-Secretaryship for the
Colonies, held for a few months six years earlier.

[Illustration: "W.E.G.," 1860.]

Big House on this first night, as Houses were counted then, when the
number of Members was considerably less. First business was to choose
SPEAKER. SHAW-LEFEVRE (not the Member for Bradford, but a forbear)
had been SPEAKER in last Parliament; re-elected now, PEEL, who, by
the lifting of a finger, could have put his own nominee in the Chair,
graciously consenting.

[Illustration: "The Colossus of Words," 1879.]

Of all who filled the House on that night, only two have seats in
the present Parliament--Mr. G., and the humble person who, by favour
of the Electors of Barkshire, is permitted to pen these lines.
(CHRISTOPHER TALBOT, then represented Glamorganshire, but he just
failed to live into this Jubilee time.) Yet, when I look round on the
Benches now, I see a score of men who bear the names, and are, in many
cases, descendants, of Members who sat in the Parliament that will
ever have a place in history, if only because it was born in the same
year, almost in the same month, as _Mr. Punch_. There was a THOMAS
DYKE ACLAND, representing Devonshire; there were two HENEAGES, one
representing Devizes, and the other, EDWARD, sitting for Grimsby,
as EDWARD HENEAGE sits to-day for the same borough. There was a
BORTHWICK, Member for Evesham. There was a PHILIP STANHOPE, Member for
Hertford. STANSFELD sat for Huddersfield, and MARJORIBANKS for Hythe,
a LAWSON for Knaresborough, a BECKETT for Leeds, a CHILDERS for
Malton, a MANNERS for Newark-upon-Trent, having a certain WILLIAM