"_Hinc illa lachryma_," muttered Mr. Oldbuck. "But," continued the Chairman, "I see other gentlemen impatient to deliver their opinions, and I desire to stand in no man's way. I therefore--my place in this chair forbidding me to originate the motion--beg some gentleman may move a committee for revising the draught of the bill now upon the table, and which has been duly circulated among those having interest, and take the necessary measures to bring it before the House early next session." There was a short murmur in the meeting, and at length Mr. Oldbuck again rose. "It seems, sir," he said, addressing the chair, "that no one present is willing to make the motion you point at. I am sorry no more qualified person has taken upon him to show any reasons in the contrair, and that it has fallen on me, as we Scotsmen say, to bell-the-cat with you; anent whilk phrase, Pitscottie hath a pleasant jest of the great Earl of Angus--" Here a gentleman whispered to the speaker, "Have a care of Pitscottie" and, Mr. Oldbuck, as if taking the hint, went on. "But that's neither here nor there--Well, gentlemen, to be short, I think it unnecessary to enter into the general reasonings whilk have this day been delivered, as I may say, _ex cathedra_; nor will I charge our worthy Preses with an attempt to obtain over us, _per ambages_, and under colour of an Act of Parliament, a despotic authority, inconsistent with our freedom. But this I will say, that times are so much changed above stairs, that whereas last year you might have obtained an act incorporating a Stock Company for riddling ashes, you will not be able to procure one this year for gathering pearls. What signifies, then, wasting the time of the meeting, by inquiring whether or not we ought to go in at a door which we know to be bolted and barred in our face, and in the face of all the companies for fire or air, land or water, which we have of late seen blighted!" Here there was a general clamour, seemingly of approbation, in which the words might be distinguished, "Needless to think of it"-- "Money thrown away"--"Lost before the committee," &c. &c. &c. But above the tumult, the voices of two gentlemen, in different corners of the room, answered each other clear and loud, like the blows of the two figures on Saint Dunstan's clock; and although the Chairman, in much agitation, endeavoured to silence them, his interruption had only the effect of cutting their words up into syllables, thus,-- _First Voice_. "The Lord Chan--" _Second Voice_. "The Lord Lau--" _Chairman_, (loudly.) "Scandalum magnatum!" _First Voice_. "The Lord Chancel--" _Second Voice_. "The Lord Lauder--" _Chairman_, (_louder yet_.) "Breach of Privilege!" _First Voice_. "The Lord Chancellor--" _Second Voice_. "My Lord Lauderdale--" _Chairman_, (_at the highest pitch of his voice_.) "Called before the House!" _Both Voices together_. "Will never consent to such a bill."