LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
OUR STATESMEN AS HUMOURISTS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, —I shall be much obliged by your admitting into your paper a more telling illustration of Sir R. Peel's humour than that which appears in the Spectator of May 11th. It was, I think, at the time of the Smith-O'Brien disturbances, —a time when Sir Robert was heckled a good deal. Among his discontented followers was the Right Hon. Frederick Shaw, Recorder of Dublin. He was rather overlooked by his party, and be was smarting exceedingly in consequence. Anxious to show the supineness of the Government and the rapid growth of panic, he gave as an illustration that Lady Shaw had a lady's-maid who demurred to accompany Sir Frederick and Lady Shaw to Ireland. The House was in transports, the badgering was excessive, and the Recorder lost alike his wit and his temper. It was then, when the fun was fast and furious, that Sir Robert Peel arose, and besought Sir Frederick Shaw not to allow himself to be embarrassed by the position of this lady's-maid. He felt he could offer .nothing better to the alarmed sensibility of the learned Baronet than a classical anodyne. She was, this English Abigail, yet, no doubt, to rank with other maidens of humble station who figured in ballad or classic story,—maidens of worth, and possible (though unreported) lineage. He [the Recorder] no doubt knew well how Horace soothed the Recorder (probably) of his own day ; and Sir Robert -quoted:—
"Ne sit ancillae tibi amor pudori Xanthia Phoceu!" &c.
'The present House of Commons may not probably have dipped
deeply into the Odes.—I am, Sir, &c., C. I. BLACK.
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