Our Vestry being assembled, Mr. Magg never begs to trouble Mr. Wigsby
with a simple inquiry. He knows better than that. Seeing the honourable
gentleman, associated in their minds with Chumbledon Square, in his
place, he wishes to ask that honourable gentleman what the intentions of
himself, and those with whom he acts, may be, on the subject of the
paving of the district known as Piggleum Buildings? Mr. Wigsby replies
(with his eye on next Sunday’s paper) that in reference to the question
which has been put to him by the honourable gentleman opposite, he must
take leave to say, that if that honourable gentleman had had the courtesy
to give him notice of that question, he (Mr. Wigsby) would have consulted
with his colleagues in reference to the advisability, in the present
state of the discussions on the new paving-rate, of answering that
question. But, as the honourable gentleman has NOT had the courtesy to
give him notice of that question (great cheering from the Wigsby
interest), he must decline to give the honourable gentleman the
satisfaction he requires. Mr. Magg, instantly rising to retort, is
received with loud cries of ‘Spoke!’ from the Wigsby interest, and with
cheers from the Magg side of the house. Moreover, five gentlemen rise to
order, and one of them, in revenge for being taken no notice of,
petrifies the assembly by moving that this Vestry do now adjourn; but, is
persuaded to withdraw that awful proposal, in consideration of its
tremendous consequences if persevered in. Mr. Magg, for the purpose of
being heard, then begs to move, that you, sir, do now pass to the order
of the day; and takes that opportunity of saying, that if an honourable
gentleman whom he has in his eye, and will not demean himself by more
particularly naming (oh, oh, and cheers), supposes that he is to be put
down by clamour, that honourable gentleman—however supported he may be,
through thick and thin, by a Fellow Parishioner, with whom he is well
acquainted (cheers and counter-cheers, Mr. Magg being invariably backed
by the Rate-Payer)—will find himself mistaken. Upon this, twenty members
of our Vestry speak in succession concerning what the two great men have
meant, until it appears, after an hour and twenty minutes, that neither
of them meant anything. Then our Vestry begins business.
We have said that, after the pattern of the real original, our Vestry in
playing at Parliament is transcendently quarrelsome. It enjoys a
personal altercation above all things. Perhaps the most redoubtable case
of this kind we have ever had—though we have had so many that it is
difficult to decide—was that on which the last extreme solemnities passed
between Mr. Tiddypot (of Gumption House) and Captain Banger (of
Wilderness Walk).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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