THE ASSASSINATION OF LORD HOWICK.
YES, Lord HOWICK has been assassinated. His fearless assertion of "Free Trade principles" has made him obnoxious to popular furor : some Conservative demagogue at Sunderland, devotedly de- termined to rid Sir ROBERT PEEL of such an enemy, has raised his wicked hand against the leader of that powerful party in the House of Commons which consists of Lord HOWICK and Mr. CHARLES WOOD; doubtless for the purpose of preventing the junction of the two halves, hitherto so luckily divided in the new Parliament. " Howick and Free Trade" was the battle-cry which drew down upon the Whig Lord the shaft of vengeance ; and thus he fell a martyr, vice COBDEN, to Corn-law Repeal, at Sunderland, anno Domini 1841—that is, he nearly fell. It was indeed bruited that he was killed outright ; but on examination, the horror of his fate dwindled away, like the magnitude of the Whig Free Trade under scrutiny ; the story grew fine by degrees and beautifully less : a man had shot Lord HOWICK ; a man had shot at Lord HOWICK ; a man had shot, and Lord Howica's finger was hit by a stone. Lord HOWICK has not actually attained martyrdom, but it was almost as good : he was in the situation of that lucky dog who got the next number to the prize in the lottery. It is well known that the French commonly exceed us in the in- ventive faculty, but that we improve upon their invention : here is an instance. The French have hit upon a very striking mode of giving prominency to the Royal station, which is by procuring their Princes to be shot at. But Lours PHILIPPE, dull fellow, has always suffered his clumsy assassins to shoot at him and his with " solid lead "— as solid as any of the plummets which the Jew-boys force upon one's attention at stage-coach-offices : Lord Howica has hit upon a very simple amendment—the QUENISSET of Sunderland was left to do his duty without ball and without aim. That is much safer, but equally imposing : while the bullet is dispensed with, there is all the fire, all the smoke, all the opportunity for showing firmness, all the screaming of women, all the popular indignation ; and to crown the whole, there actually was an emeute and a sacking of a house. So Lord HOWICK is not assassinated ; but he takes his degree as an assassinable man : as some Peers are styled "noble and learned," he will be called, in virtue of his new qualification, the "noble and assassinable lord." Every man is not born with a silver-spoon in his mouth ; and it is not every defeated candidate that finds a reelection and a bloodless assassination all in one day.
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