PEA R-RIPENING.
LITTLE has been said about the " ripening of the pear" lately, and yet the process seems to have begun in good earnest—with the House of Lords at least. The noble House in its legislative and judicial capacity belongs to the class of fruits called " medlars— half rotten ere they're ripe." Ripe and rotten are with them the same (in the acceptation of pear-ripeners)—" and so we ripe and ripe, and rot and rot." So whenever we see the trace of " Decay's effacing fingers," we may know they are getting ripe and about to drop. The first symptom—and it appeared some time ago—was when the Lords gave up their own apartment to the Commons, and retired into their present narrower domicile. This was giving up the best bedroom to a more important guest, and putting up with an attic : it was assuming the appearance of the " dish of apple- johns -" set down before Falstaff by Prince Hal—shrivelling up into less bulk, like " old, withered knights." This symptom is about to reappear with aggravations at the trial of Lord CARDIGAN. The Lords have not room for the public in the narrow mansion to which they are now confined : they are obliged to clear the gal- leries to find room for the Peeresses who wish to see the sight. The trial of Lord CARDIGAN by his Peers is not a public transac- tion, but a spectacle illustrative of old practices, got up, not even like the Eglintoun Tournament, for the general amusement, but pri- vately for the satisfaction of the families of the Peers. The Lords in their old age hese taken Hamlet's hint : " let the doors be shut upon him, that he play the fool nowhere but in his own house."
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