Thackeray's English Humorists Of The Eighteenth Century (1911) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LECTURE THE SECOND CONGREVE AND ADDISON A great number of years ago, before the passing of the Reform Bill, there existed at Cambridge a certain debating club called the " Union;" and I remember that there was a tradition amongst the undergraduates who frequented that renowned school of oratory, that the great leaders of the Opposition and Government had their eyes upon the University Debating Club, and that if a man distinguished himself there he ran some chance of being returned to Parliament as a great nobleman's nominee. So Jones of John's, or Thomson of Trinity, would rise in their might, and draping themselves in their gowns rally round the monarchy, or hurl defiance at priests and kings, with the majesty of Pitt or the fire of Mirabeau, fancying all the while that the great nobleman's emissary was listening to the debate from the back benches where he was sitting with the family seat in his pocket. Indeed, the legend said that one or two young Cambridge men, orators of the " Union," were actually caught up thence, and carried down to Cornwall or Old Sarum, and so into Parliament; and many a young fellow deserted the jogtrot university curriculum, to hang on in the dust behind the fervid wheels of the parliamentary chariot. Where, I have often wondered, were the sons of Peers and Members of Parliament in Anne's and George's time ? Were they all in the army, or hunting in the country, orboxing the watch ? How was it that the young gentlemen from the University got such a prodigious number of places? A lad composed a neat copy of verses at Christ- church or Trinity, in which the death of a great personage was bemoaned, the French king assailed, the Dutch or Prince Eugene complimented, or the reverse; and the party in power was presently to provide for the young poet; ...