Member courteously assisted him, whereupon he remarked:--

'I am very much obliged to you, sir, for reversing the policy of your
friends inside, who are taking the coats off our backs.'

This was equalled by the wife of an Irish landlord who lost her purse in
the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Commons.

Mrs. Gladstone, who had been sitting next her, after kindly assisting in
the ineffectual search, observed:--

'I hope there was not much in it.'

'No, it was a nice little purse I had had for a long time, but thanks to
your husband there was nothing in it.'

An Irish story of Magee's concerns an Orange clergyman in Fermanagh, who
asked leave to preach a sermon by Magee. Now, this clergyman, who was an
ambitious man, was rather ashamed of his mother, and would not let her
live at the parsonage, but had taken lodgings for her in the town.
Magee, moreover, always a moderate man, did not like Orange sermons, and
most certainly had never composed one. As he good naturedly did not want
to offend the other, he said he would give him a capital sermon to
deliver if he--Magee--might select the text.

'Of course, of course,' assented the other; 'what is it?'

'"From that time His disciple took her to his own house."'

Even this was hardly so cutting as his remark, when a bishop, to a