Sir Timothy Beeswax
Sir: You might find the following extract mildly diverting. It is taken from The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope and is a description of Sir Timothy Beeswax, the leader of the Government in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister of the time being Lord Drummond who sat in the Lords.
'He invented a pseudo-patriotic conjuring phraseology which no one understood but which many admired. He was ambitious that it should be said of him that he was far-and-away the cleverest of his party. He knew himself to be clever. But he could only be far-and-away the cleverest by saying and doing that which no one could understand. If he could become n3aster of some great hocus-pocus system which could be made to be graceful to the ears and eyes of many, which might for awhile seem to have within it some semi-divine attribute, which should have all but divine power of master- ing the loaves and fishes, then would they who fol- lowed him believe in him more firmly than other followers who had believed in their leaders.'
• D. J. ?eagle 18a Christchurch Hill, Hampstead, London NW3
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