Mr. John Hardy,—the comic brother of the Home Secretary,— having
lost Dartmouth by the Reform Act, is canvassing South Warwickshire, where he recommends his cause by comparing Mr. J. S. Mill to an owl, who looks very wise and sage in the darkness of his study, but very foolish when he comes out into the light of day. Well, the comparison is not so very injurious to Mr. Mill, for, after all, the owl is none the wiser for darkness and none the sillier for light ; and what it merely looks, matters very little, except to childish intellects like Mr. John Hardy's, which are run away with by appearances. But what a melan- choly spectacle it is, this canvassing, when it comes to a man like Mr. John Hardy, who has scarcely ever yet opened his mouth in public but to expectorate a buffoonery, or defend him- self for breaking the law of which he is a guardian, going about to the electors of South Warwickshire, telling them, " I'm for the Irish Church, and Mr. Mill is very like an owl," and so hoping to gain his seat (which very likely he may) ! We fear many of the electors of South Warwickshire are far too sincere Tories to care a button whether they are represented by a sensible man or not.
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