THE GOLD CUPS AND THE IRON COLUMN.
THE committee who managed the affair of the four geld cups presented to Lords GREY, BROUGHAM, ALTHORP, and RUSSELL, for their share in passing the Reform Bill, met the other day, and treated themselves with a dinner, and their chairman, Mr. DENNY, with a gold snuff-box, "for his valuable exertions and unremitting attention to the committee."
We are left to guess where the money came from to furnish the entertainment and the gold box. In all matters of outlay, we generally find the parties concerned job infected with the prevail- ing spirit. If an architect has the of erecting a. church, he contrives to indulge himself with a villa at the same time. In the disposal of land for building on, the conveyancer and the builder are among the first to recommend by their example the occupation of the ground to others. In these cases, however, the parties are benefited by the business, and can afford thus to appropriate a share of their profits; but in the case of the committee for manag- ing a public subscription, it is different. No gold sticks to their fingers, that can be rolled up into a little ornament, like the de- vices that adorn a pasty, which the careful cook constructs out of the parings of the paste. It is evident that when the committee complimented their chairman for his polite attentions to them- selves, they could not have thought of devoting any part of the public subscriptions to this purpose; and their delicacy in refraining from stating that the money came out of their own pockets excites our admiration. The exuberance of their liberality is marked by the great disproportion of the value of their gift to the exertions of their chairman, in comparison with those to the noble Lords for their part in the matter of the Reform Bill. Estimating the re- ward due to them by the standard of the committee's munificence, instead of a gold cup each, the Reform Ministers deserved statues of gold. We wonder the committee were not struck by the force of the inference conveyed by their splendid gift,—namely, that the gold cups were a very insufficient, nay paltry testimonial of the gratitude of the nation. What a contrast does the result of the labours of the com- mittee of gold cups present to that of the scrubby managers of the iron column, that was to have been erected to commemorate the well-meaning blunder of the verdict returned by the Calthorpe Street Jury ! In this case, the committee, instead of presenting their chairman, Mr. NEIL, with a handsome knocker,—as should have been the case to make the parallel complete,—have no funds to erect the column with, and call in vain upon their chair- man for his subscription; who not only ignobly declines paying it, but denies having subscribed his name to the fund. This committee is Out of pocket too; but the sub-committee would appear to be considerably in pocket by the business. At any rate, the money subscribed non est inventor, and the iron column is not. In the inverse alchemy of transmuting gold into iron, the more valuable metal has disappeared.
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