_Mr. Burke._ Edmund Burke (1729-1797), M.P. for Bristol. The dominant theme of Burke’s speech, “the ruin of this declining empire” was a favorite one among anti-ministerial orators, pamphleteers, and poets during the Revolution. Soon after the appearance, in 1781, of the second and third volumes of Gibbon’s _Decline and Fall_, Thomas Powys, M.P. for Northamptonshire, read extracts from that work in a debate on a motion for putting an end to the American war. Powys ventured to say that the description of Rome in the Fifth Century by Mr. Gibbon, whose enrolment in the administration was the only accession of which his Majesty’s ministers had to boast, ... was so strong, so expressive, so applicable, that though it was said to belong to Rome, he could not help thinking that it alluded to a nearer country, and a nearer period (_Parliamentary History_, XXII, 805). PAGE 43 _the pageantry of domestic warfare._ An allusion to the vogue of the militia encampments as places of fashionable resort. _important depredations at—Martha’s Island._ Early in September Major-General Grey, under orders from Sir Henry Clinton, invested Martha’s Vineyard and carried off “a considerable and most desirable contribution, consisting of 10,000 sheep, and 300 oxen, for the public service at New York” (_The Annual Register_ for 1779, “History of Europe,” p. 2). PAGE 45 _Mr Dunning._ John Dunning (1731-1783), M.P. for Calne; the leading Whig lawyer in the House of Commons; cr. Baron Ashburton of Ashburton, 1782. PAGE 46 _Mr. Sollicitor-General._ James Wallace (d. 1783), M.P. for Horsham; succeeded Wedderburn as Solicitor-General, June 1778. PAGE 47 _Mr Fox._ Charles James Fox (1749-1806), third son of the first Baron Holland; M.P. for Malmesbury and leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. Either out of personal regard for Fox or at the request of Lord North, Tickell does not burlesque Fox’s oratory. It is stated in the review of _Anticipation_ in _The Town and Country Magazine_ that Fox’s speech actually “was noticed by that gentleman in the house, who, at the same time, lamented his incapacity of making so good an harangue upon the occasion” (XI, 1779, 45). According to a note in Horace Walpole’s copy of _Anticipation_, “Charles Fox said, ‘he has anticipated many things I have intended to say, but I shall say them nevertheless.’” PAGE 48 _General Lee._ Charles Lee (1731-1782), Lieutenant-Colonel in the British army; appointed Major-General by Congress, 1775; court-martialed and suspended from service for disobedience to orders and misbehavior before the enemy during the battle of Monmouth Court House, June 1778. PAGE 49