entrusted the duty of weighing their respective merits--well
then, to use a colloquial phrase, I may confidently say that
"I am all there!"

Of course. Royalty must head it, so I head the list of, say,
twelve Academic Electors, with the name of H.R.H. the Prince
of WALES. This should be followed up by that of some generally
widely-known personage, who has the literary confidence of
the public, and in this connection, I have no hesitation in
supplying it by that of the Compiler of _Bradshaw's Railway
Guide_. Several now should follow, of varied and even
conflicting interests, so as to satisfy any over-captious
criticism inclined to question the thoroughly cosmopolitan
character of the elective body. And so I next add, Mr. Sheriff
AUGUSTUS HARRIS, H.R.H. the Duke of CAMBRIDGE, the Proprietor
of PEARS' Soap, and the Beadle of the Burlington Arcade.

It might now be well to give a distinctively literary flavour
to the body, and so I am disposed to continue my list with the
names of the Poet Laureate and the City Editor of _Tit Bits_,
following them up with the representatives of commercial
enterprise, speculative art, and sportive leisure, guaranteed
respectively by the names of the Chairman of the Chelsea
Steam-boat Company, Mr. R. D'OYLY CARTE, and Prince HENRY
OP BATTENBERG. For the twelfth, and remaining name, I
would suggest that of Mr. HENRY IRVING, the Archbishop of
CANTERBURY, the Manager of Madame TUSSAUD'S Wax Works, Sir
WILFRID LAWSON, General BOOTH, Mr. SLAVIN, Mr. J.L. TOOLE, or
any other striking or notable one that arrests the eye with
the familiarity of long acquaintance. With the existing