A Hundred Years Ago
" THE SPECTATOR," MAY 25111,- 1833.
Our Parliamentary chronicle this week is a brief one : for, although a considerable amount of business was got through, it has not, generally speaking, been of a description calculated to excite much public interest. Indeed, it is very evident that the proceed- ings of our Representatives, even on important questions, are re- garded "out of doors" with increasing indifference.' This is the lamentable but inevitable consequence of tho lino.of conduct which they have been so ill-advised as to adopt. The Reformed House of Commons is no longer regarded as representing the wishes of the nation, but rather in the light of a subservient instrument in the hands of Ministers. The members are obviously aware of this themselves ; and symptoms of weariness, disgust, and indifference to the performance of their duties, are beginning to be visiblo amongst them. They are desirous of getting through the remaining, that is to Say, nearly all the import ant business of the session, with as little delay and annoyance as possible,—in the hope, we would fain believe, of turning over a new leaf next year.. They feel, and the country feels too, that for this session at least the game is up,
and thin to retrieve their character is a hopeless business •
EPSOM RACES.—The Epsom races this year have been remarkably brilliant. The weather every day has been extremely fine, though rather too warm ;' the company distinguished ; and, on Thursday, when the Derby was run for, numerous beyond all precedent, the grand stand being literally crammed with spectators. The number of horses was nearly a hundred, and the entries greater than were over known before at Epsom. [This was Dangerous's year.]
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The Scotch papers contain accounts of a remarkable storm of hail and rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning, which seems to have passed over nearly the whole country on three successive days, in the week before last. The Dumfries Courier is particularly eloquent on the size of the hailstones. It adds : " The rain fell in such torrents at Hutton Hall, that it actually bared a sloping potato-field of its soil, and made a breach in a stout stone wall five feet high ; it then crossed the public road and burst a second wall on the opposite side, transporting huge stones to a distance which it would actually require a Hercules to lift. The soil hurried on MISS deposited on a rough piece of moss land on the farm of Locherbank, and when the potatoes grow, it will form a curious question as to whom t h • property of right belongs."
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