English literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism; Great Britain -- Intellectual life -- 18th century
as rather mean, and not a little resembling a chapel. But the Speaker
and the mace; the members going and coming, some cracking nuts and
eating oranges, others in their greatcoats and with boots and spurs; the
cries of 'Hear,' and 'Order,' and 'Question,' speedily absorb him.
On his first visit he is fortunate. The debate turns on the reward to
Admiral Rodney for his victory over De Grasse at Guadaloupe, and he
hears Fox, Burke, and Rigby speak. 'This same celebrated Charles Fox,'
he says, 'is a short, fat, and gross man, with a swarthy complexion, and
dark; and in general he is badly dressed. There certainly is something
Jewish in his looks. But upon the whole, he is not an ill-made nor an
ill-looking man: and there are many strong marks of sagacity and fire in
his eyes.... Burke is a well-made, tall, upright man, but looks elderly
and broken. Rigby is excessively corpulent, and has a jolly rubicund
face.'
Pastor Moritz repeated his visits to the Parliament House, frankly
confessing that he preferred this entertainment to most others; and,
indeed, it was a shilling cheaper than the pit of a theatre. When, after
his tour in the country, he came back to London, he seems at once
to have gravitated to Westminster, for he gives an account of the
discussion on the Barré pension which followed the death of Lord
Rockingham in July. He heard Fox, with great eloquence, vindicate his
resignation; he heard Horace Walpole's friend, General Conway; he heard
Burke, in a passion, insisting upon the respect of the house; he heard
the youthful Pitt, then scarcely looking more than one-and-twenty, rivet
universal attention. A little earlier he had been privileged to witness
that most English of sights, the Westminster election in Covent Garden,
with its boisterous _finale_. 'When the whole was over, the rampant
spirit of liberty, and the wild impatience of a genuine English
mob, were exhibited in perfection. In a very few minutes the whole
scaffolding, benches, and chairs, and everything else, was completely
destroyed; and the mat with which it had been covered torn into ten
thousand long strips or pieces, or strings; with which they _encircled_
or inclosed multitudes of people of all ranks. These they hurried along
with them, and everything else that came in their way, as trophies of
joy; and thus, in the midst of exultation and triumph, they paraded
through many of the most populous streets of London.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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