to be drawn up to bait. A curious story attaches to it. As the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Ellenborough, was riding in Rotten Row, news was brought to him of the death of his chief clerk, who held a great sinecure office of several thousands a year. He immediately dismounted, and cautiously walking to the "Half-way House," borrowed a sheet of paper and made out the appointment of his son, who held this great salary for many years.

I can only just recollect a vision of the famous Count d'Orsay and Napoleon when still in London; and, oddly enough, looking back at Eton-where I was a member of the debating society called "Pop."-I cannot recollect ever having heard the name of Disraeli, and yet in 1846 he had written most of his famous novels; he had already passed through ten sessions of Parliament, and his dress was an ostentatious affectation, enough alone to have made him notorious. He wore a slate-colored velvet coat lined with satin, purple trousers with a gold band down the outside seam, a scarlet waistcoat, long lace ruffles falling down to the tips of his fingers, white gloves with brilliant rings outside them, and long black ringlets rippling down over his shoulders; and when he rose in the House he wore a bottle-green frock-coat, with a white waistcoat, collarless, and a needless display of gold chains. I never heard at the time of the shouts of ridicule with which his first speech had been received, or his self-confident prophecy, copied from O'Connell, that the day would come when they should hear him. It is not well known by this generation that within a few days he was followed by Monckton Milnes in a brilliant speech, which was praised on all sides. The successful speaker became a poet and a pleasant member of society, but received no higher office than that of Junior Lord of the Treasury, when Lord Palmerston in his cleverest

vein asked him to join him on the Board, while the man who failed became the idol of the people, and twice Prime Minister of England.

In 1851 I entered the Inland-revenue department as a temporary clerk, at 6s. a day, and I know of no prouder hour than that in which I received my first cash payment at the end of the quarter. My duties were strictly clerical and drearily monotonous-so many forms to fill up each day, and that was all; it was, therefore, with great pleasure that, after about a year of this probationary work, I was summoned to the alarming and splendid presence of Sir James Graham, who was the First Lord of the Admiralty, and was offered a clerkship on that establishment.

I was much troubled, for when my interview took place I was wearing a coat which I thought must be, or might be, considered a little loud, and I regretted that time was not given to me to change it. My friend and contemporary, Lord Welby, was told, when he entered the Treasury, by Mr. Dwight, a colleague of his, that he remembered the day that Mr. Alcock, his chief, a high officer in the Treasury, was sent for by the great Mr. Pitt, but dared not obey the summons because he had not got on his breeches and buckles. However, Sir James Graham overlooked my coat, and I was appointed as the last clerk that ever entered the public service without any examination whatever. Bernal Osborne was then the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty, and congratulated me on this. Soon afterwards there was a vacancy in the office, and the son of a friend of his was nominated, who had not had the advantage, as we all knew, of a too liberal education. We juniors trembled for the result; but Bernal Osborne said the first examination was so important that he should conduct it himself, which he did to the utmost satisfaction of the candidate, who was re