CANNING'S EPIGRAM ON MR. WHITBREAD.
[TO THE EDITOR. OF THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR, In your notice of the late Mr. Samuel Charles Whitbread, in last Saturday's Spectator, you refer to Mr. Canning's well- known lines. The lines in question were, however, composed during the speech of the late Mr. Whitbread's father, at the trial of Lord Melville in Westminster Hall, and not in consequence of any remarks of Mr. S. C. Whitbread's in the House of Commons. They run as follows :- " I'm like Archimedes for science and skill, I'm like a young prince going straight up a hill ; I'm like (with respect to the fair, be it said),— I'm like a young lady just bringing to bed. If you ask why the 11th of June I remember, Much better than April, or May, or November,— On that day, my Lords, with truth, I assure ye, My sainted progenitor set up his brewery ; On that day, in the morn, he began brewing beer ;
On that day, too, began his connubial career ; On that day he received and he issued his bills ; On that day he cleared out all the cash from his tills ; On that day he died, having finished his summing, And the angels all cried, Here's old Whitbread a-coming !' So that day still I hail with a smile and a sigh, For his beer with an E, and his bier with an I ; And still on that day, in the hottest of weather, The whole Whitbread family dine all together.
So long as the beams of this house shall support The roof which o'ershades this respectable Court, Where Hastings was tried for oppressing the Hindoos ;
So long as the sun shall shine in at those windows,—
My name shall shine bright as my ancestor's shines,
Mine recorded in Journals, his blazon'd on signs!"
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