863. Mr. Abrahams, said Lord Mansfield, this man is your son, and cannot
go in the same bail bond. He ish not my son, my lord. Why, Mr. Abrahams,
here are twenty in court will prove it. I will shwear, my lord, he ish
not. Take care, Abrahams, or I will send you to the King’s Bench. Now,
my lord, if your lordship pleases, I will tell you the truth. Well, I
shall be glad to hear the truth from a Jew, replied Lord Mansfield. My
lord, I wash in Amsterdam two years and three quarters; when I came home
I findish this lad; now the law obliges me to maintain him; and
consequently, my lord, he ish but my son-in-law. Well, rejoined Lord
Mansfield, this is the best definition of a son-in-law I ever heard.
864. An Irishman being told that a friend of his had put his money in
the stocks, Well, said he, I never had a farthing in the stocks, but I
have had my legs often enough in them.
865. Dr. Fuller having requested one of his companions, who was a bon
vivant, to make an epitaph for him, received the following, with the
conceit of which he always expressed himself much pleased―“Here lies
Fuller’s earth.”
866. Two Irish seamen being on board a ship of war that was lying at
Spithead, one of them, looking on Haslar Hospital, observed, How much
that building puts me in mind of my father’s stables. Arrah, my honey,
cried the other, come with me, and I will shew you what will put you in
mind of your father’s house. So saying, he led him to the pig-sty.
There, said he, does not that put you in mind of your father’s parlour?
867. At a violent opposition election for Shrewsbury, in the reign of
George I., a half-pay officer, who was a non-resident burgess, was, with
some other voters, brought down from London at the expense of Mr.
Kynaston, one of the candidates. The old campaigner regularly attended
and feasted at the houses which were opened for the electors in Mr.
Kynaston’s interest, until the last day of the polling, when, to the
astonishment of the party, he gave his vote to his opponent. For this
strange conduct he was reproached by his quondam companions, and asked,
what could have induced him to act so dishonourable a part, and become
an apostate. An apostate! answered the old soldier―an apostate! by no
means. I made up my mind about whom I should vote for before I set out
upon this campaign; but I remembered the duke’s constant advice to us
when I served with our army in Flanders―Always quarter upon the enemy,
my lads; always quarter upon the enemy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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