A MOUTHPIECE FOR THE HUNGRY.
THERE is an appearannce of sly satire in the hospitable reception prepared for the deputation of the Common Council at Windsor Castle. The Queen seems to have suspected an arriere pensee in the proposal of the civic sages to discuss with her in person the Corn-law question, which must be decided by her responsible Ministers ; and the season, combined with her Majesty's re- miniscences of Guildhall and Royal Exchange festivities, na- turally suggested that their object was to storm the Royal larder. Accordingly, a sumptuous refection was set forth in the banqueting-hall to await their arrival. But the delicate point of the Royal jest was thrown into the shade by the broad tin conscious caricature of civic appetites. Distrusting the hospitality of Wind- sor Castle, the Common Councilmen had ordered a dejeuner a la fourchette at Slough ; and some choice spirits among them had 'moreover taken care that a sumptuous dinner should be prepared at the station against their return. They toyed so long with the delicacies set before them by mine host at Slough, that they were almost too late for the Queen. The deputation from the Dublin Common Council—which, with more of ardent loyalty, or say, more of common civility, drove straight from the station to the Castle, and did not run the risk of keeping the Queen waiting while they were gormandizing—were rewarded with a delicate banquet, of which their fat-feeding confreres of London had only caught a glimpse when they were summoned to the Royal pre- sence. Any person whose genius for deglutition has not been cultivated in civic feasts, might fancy that a drive from a rich breakfast at Slough to Windsor and back again to a rich dinner, even though an intermediate luncheon at the Castle should be missed, implies no great hardship or pri- vation. Yet the echoes of Guildhall and the Mansionhouse have rung for the last week with wailings over the lost banquet and her Majesty's ruthless punctuality, as intense as those of a famish- ing caravan that sees its last meal expended in mid desert. What a sublime notion of the perfectibility of human faculties is sug- gested by men who, trained at the banquets of corporate bodies, can face three full feasts in the course of eight hours—nay, who can gpyil like the hungry inmates of a menagerie if one of the three is accidentally withheld! But such masticators were only indifferent representatives of potato-fed workmen alarmed by a deficiency in their staple article of food. Did a hungry panic ever before speak through such a mouthpiece? Only fancy the Queen asking the orator of the deputation, " What is hunger ?" It was Pharaoh's seventh full-crammed year of plenty talking about the lean and hungry seven that were to follow.
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