by some beer, if the modern electors be not much altered from their
forefathers.

Besides this important estate, the Selwyns had another at Ludgershall,
and their influence there was so complete, that they might fairly be
said to _give_ one seat to any one they chose. With such double barrels
George Selwyn was, of course, a great gun in the House, but his interest
lay far more in piquet and pleasantry than in politics and patriotism,
and he was never fired off with any but the blank cartridges of his two
votes. His parliamentary career, begun in 1747, lasted more than forty
years, yet was entirely without distinction. He, however, amused both
parties with his wit, and by _snoring in unison_ with Lord North. This
must have been trying to Mr. Speaker Cornwall, who was longing, no
doubt, to snore also, and dared not. He was probably the only Speaker
who presided over so august an assembly as our English Parliament with a
pewter pot of porter at his elbow, sending for more and more to
Bellamy's till his heavy eyes closed of themselves. A modern M.P.,
carried back by some fancies to 'the Senate' of those days, might
reasonably doubt whether his guide had not taken him by mistake to some
Coal-hole or Cider-cellar, presided over by some former Baron Nicholson,
and whether the furious eloquence of Messrs. Fox, Pitt, and Burke were
not got up for the amusement of an audience admitted at sixpence a head.

Selwyn's political jokes were the delight of Bellamy's! He said that Fox
and Pitt reminded him of Hogarth's Idle and Industrious Apprentices.
When asked by some one, as he sauntered out of the house--'Is the House
up?' he replied; 'No, but Burke is.' The length of Burke's elaborate
spoken essays was proverbial, and obtained for him the name of the
'Dinner-bell.' Fox was talking one day at Brookes' of the advantageous
peace he had made with France, and that he had even induced that country