MR. HUME'S PLACE.
WE feel much disposed to sympathize in the lamentation of Mr. HUME over the loss of his place. Like the worthy member for Middlesex, we ourselves have the bump of inhabitiveness strongly developed. At school, we fought for our own form and our own end of it ; at college, neither the lecture nor the professor could ever win our attention unless the voice and the figure fell on our ear and eye at the accustomed angle; since we were elevated to the dignity of citizenship, and acquired a local habitation, if not a name, we have stoutly stood for our privilege to stick by the side of the fire that pleased us best, and our claim—on the condition of foregoing all others—has been allowed. In short, amidst the thousand ills to which the flesh is heir, the being driven from post to pillar has ever appeared the least endurable ; and we can fancy no danger of so surpassing a magnitude—not even the Cholera itself—that might not be met with patience by a wise man, if he were free to take up a proper position in which to wait its attack. These circumstances, we repeat, incline us to sympathize most deeply with Mr. Hums in his lamentation. We cannot indeed conceive a more distressing sight than that which met his eye the other morn ing, when, on entering the House without the thought of beguiling or being beguiled, he found the name of the member for Fife staring upon him, in all the confidence of upstart pride, from a spot which had been so long associated with his own person, that . the very post seemed conscious of its degradation, and looked as blank and bemazed as its brother of the Strand did on the morning of the 2nd of March. We know that there are many persons who smile at these things—who, as SHAKSPEARE foolishly asked what was in a name, will with equal if not superior folly ask what is in a seat ? We answer, much. Suppose that, by any unhappy chance, the member for Middlesex were compelled to stray over to the Treasury bench for want of a Niter resting-place, by what appliances could he hope to win the Speaker's eye once in the course of a ten hours' debate, were he to rise as often as Mr. SADLER ? And if he did, in addition to the total wreck and ruin of that chain of ideas which are as indissolubly connected with the post as with the head, in addition to the confusion worse confounded which such a breaking. up of his old and accustomed associations must necessarily produce, fancy, next morning, a speech of three hours and a quarter doubled up in ten lines as the production "of a Scotch member that nobody in the Gallery knew, who spoke from the Ministerial side of the House!" Fancy, also, when the truth began to ooze out, the sneers that would en. • sue !—The member for Middlesex had got on the right side for once in his life—he had quitted his place, but it was to take a better one—the great Cerberus of Retrenchment, as Mr. HUNT called him, was floored at length ! We have no hesitation in saying, that this same Tory Colonel has some deep design against the honest champion of cheap government. He saw it would be in vain to attempt a conversion while Mr. Hums kept to his post. The stability of his principles was to be broken down by degrees, and the first step was to effect a divorcement between them and that piece of heart-of-oak to which they had long clung, as emblematic at once of their soundness and uprightness. It was for this that he bribed the broom-lady of the House to admit him at the unwonted hour of seven in the morning. GOLDSMITH speaks of a period in our future history, when
"Scotchmen meet Scotchmen, and cheat in the dark ;"
. from which the Doctor doubtless meant it to be inferred, that Scotchmen would never cheat Scotchmen, unless under circumstances in which, according to the well-known proverb, all persons are alike. The Colonel has soared a flight above poor GOLDIS imaginings, for he has given a specimen of cheating Scotchmen even in the light. But his boast will be a short one. The Bill, which he vainly attempts to destroy by his devices, will soon send him packing; or if it don't, the member for Middlesex He who does not go to bed until three, is earlier afoot than • he who gets up at seven. Let the cunning Colonel think of this, and aim in future at less difficult and hazardous game.
SPECTATOR OFFICE, Wednesday morning.—We have great pleasure in stating, that Mr. HUMS resumed his seat last night. He was warmly congratulated on the occasion by all his acquaintance.
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