graceful stroke. Difficult to say which the most admirable, the lofty
height, far above the littleness of Party conflict, from which he surveyed
the topic, the charm of his language or the dexterity with which, without
seeming to rebuke the follower who had moved the Amendment and the eminent
men who were prepared to support it, he sustained the Ministry in their
effort to reconstruct the Indian Councils, and suggested that the Amendment
should with all haste be put into the fire. Whilst SCHWANN appropriated an
hour of the Sitting, and SEYMOUR-KEAY exceeded that time, twenty-five
minutes served Mr. G. for a speech delivered without note, apparently
without preparation, and which left nothing more to be said.

"Upon my word, Sir," I said, a little out of breath trying to keep pace
with him running up the Duke of YORK'S steps going home to dinner, "you
grow younger every year, and, if I may say so, mellower."

"You certainly may say so, TOBY, if you like," he smilingly replied, "but
the calendar says otherwise."

"What," I asked--

"What has the calendar to do
With Mr. G.? What Time's fruitless tooth
With gay immortals such as you,
Whose years but emphasise your youth?"

"Ah, I know that--with a slight difference. LOWELL wrote it to WENDEL
HOLMES on his seventy-fifth birthday. I knew HOLMES too; he used to crow
over me because he was just four months older, and yet, as he said, whilst
I pleaded age as a reason why I could not visit the United States, he
crossed the Atlantic at seventy-seven. Perhaps when I've got this Home-Rule