'On Her Majesty's Service.”

A FEW years ago, I remember often observing, when I went about to see my friends, that for about a month after Michaelmas and a month after Lady-day, a mysterious-looking document was very prominently exhibited in the letter-case upon the mantel-piece, bearing, in large printed letters upon the outside, the words of our title this afternoon, "On Her Majesty's Service." On one of these occasions I had the curiosity to enquire what this peculiar notification might mean, and I was duly informed that this document, which had attracted my notice, was the Income-Tax paper. I was not much the wiser after this explanation. I felt at first rather indignant that I had not been honoured with a similar token of Her Majesty's confidence, for I regarded myself as one of the most loyal of her subjects; and considered myself as ever at her service. But, when it was thoroughly made clear to me that this document was not forwarded by Her Most Gracious Majesty herself, and that it did not contain an invitation to lunch at Buckingham Palace, but that it was transmitted through the instrumentality of the minions of the Inland Revenue Office, and contained a demand for a considerable percentage upon one's entire earnings, I confess I did not feel. quite so envious of the distinction conferred. I asked how

rich a person must become before he had one of these pretty papers sent him. I don't know why I need have been alarmed, I am sure; for my own personal income at that time consisted of nothing a week, without board or washing. Still, however, I of course did not know what might happen, and I thought I should like to know all the mysteries of the Income Tax,— except the practical mystery of paying it,-in case the Emperor of Morocco, or the Grand Mufti of Sarawak should take it into their heads to bequeath me an annuity of a hundred thousand pounds. I think the tax only extended to incomes of two hundred a year at that time; and as I knew perfectly well that I should never realise such a princely revenue, if I lived two hundred years, I made my mind quite easy on the subject. But when Mr. Gladstone, or Mr. Disraeli, or some other desperate Chancellor of the Exchequer began to talk of bringing it down to incomes of one hundred and fifty, I confess I began to feel personally interested. I thought if they only bring it fifty pounds lower, they will begin to come upon my hundred and twenty, and I shall have to garnish my mantel-piece with the pretty announcement about Her Majesty's Service." need not say that my worst fears were realised; and that now the butter even on my hard-earned crusts is annually scraped off by that interesting brigade rejoicing in the name of Excise officers, who go about "On Her Majesty's Service."

I

I do not intend this allusion to be construed into a protest against the Income Tax, or any other tax; I am one of those Enlightened Conservatives in politics, who believe that it is desirable to keep up the state and the dignity of this country, I believe it is essential to keep our native land in a proper and efficient state of defence, to maintain a thoroughly equipped standing army, and an invincible Channel Fleet. I have very little confidence, I must confess, in either the bravery or the skill of those carpet knights, who walk about the streets with a rifle that they don't know how to carry, and grey coats and peg-tops, in which they don't know how to sit down. I am not

"fast" enough to be a Radical reformer, and I am stupid enough to prefer taxation and tyranny, to democracy and anarchy. At present, however, I find it hard to discover where the tyranny is which is so loudly complained of on our Radical platforms. But if we must be tyrannised over, commend me to the tender mercies of a despot, rather than those of a demagogue. I have been a little amused to observe the sudden subsidence of the recent clamour for a Reform Bill, which agitated these manufacturing districts some few months ago. How suddenly and effectually have improved trade, and full time, and plentiful employment, gagged the hue and cry which echoed up and down for a five pound suffrage! When men were idle and hungry, then they had leisure and temper to perform the patriotic dodge, and to talk about oppression and the "rights of Englishmen," and all that; but now that work is at a premium, demagogism is at a discount. Possibly, indeed, the little disclosures which have transpired in pure Huddersfield, in immaculate Gloucester, and incorruptible Wakefield may have had some little influence in quelling the outcry for universal suffrage; but certain it is, that we do not hear quite so much about this interesting subject now as we did in the month of May last, when some of the indignant unenfranchised assembled in this very hall, to fling back in my unlucky teeth the falsehood of a fact.

But we have the happiness to live not only in a free, but in a comparatively enlightened country,-a country where the Sovereign is maintained on her throne, not by an armed guard of soldiers, but by the love and homage of her people; so that the disaffection of disaffected men produces no impression on the social mind. It is true there are many anomalies arising out of this very freedom we enjoy; but these are not serious, but rather ludicrous. For instance, we see living swindlers let loose upon the world after the endurance of only one quarter of their punishment. And we see dead tricksters actually immortalised in public parks by

statues of marble and of bronze. But this is simply an incidental nuisance, not a great crying evil. An overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of this land-working-men as well as those more affluent and influential-are far too soberminded and too high-principled and virtuous, politically, to sympathise with anyone who would seek to divert their loyalty into a channel of discontent. Even the bulk of the men who cheer and cry "bravo" at low political meetings, during times of scarce labour, and who, by their plaudits, encourage those ungrammatical stumpers" who are always talking about reforming the constitution, but never about reforming themselves,—I say, even the bulk of such men only do this for the sake of a little excitement in which to forget, for an hour, their own domestic troubles; but at heart they love their Queen, and hate all who would subvert her throne or limit her authority. For my own part, I have far more confidence in the willingness of the poor, in time of danger, to stand out in Her Majesty's Service"-than in our drawing-room squires, and fireside captains, whose chivalry extends nó further than to the performance of "the Lancers" in the ballroom, and whose military prowess is confined to the parlour, and to the wearing of the uniform of a soldier upon the shoulders, but not around the heart. But what I should like to do, in reference to the political part of our subject to-day, is to try to persuade those among the working-classes to make the best of these good times; to lay by against a rainy-day, so that when scarcity comes back again, you may not lay all your troubles on the Queen and constitution; but, having à full pantry, you can still keep up a loyal heart; and, on the strength of your glass of ale, (of which I should be very sorry to deprive you if you would but share it with your wife and children,) you may sing "God Save the Queen" with her most devoted subjects. I am not going to dwell upon this, as I hope to devote a future lecture entirely to it; but in the meantime will content myself with reminding you, that now

times are good, that soon those times may change; and, as citizens desiring all the privileges of citizenship, I conjure you to qualify yourselves for those privileges, by showing that you know how to be frugal, as well as industrious; and that you are wise enough to use economy in prosperity, as a preservative against political disaffection, no less than physical want in times of adversity.

But there are other and higher than political, uses to which, by the aid of a little fancy, or a little discursive licence, our subject may be applied. Most of the working-men present probably have another queen to serve, besides Queen Victoria. When I call a man's wife his queen, I do not mean for one moment to insinuate that he is under petticoat government, or that his partner usurps any garments which he alone should wear. But I call her his queen because she ought to stand supreme in his affections; because she ought to rule his heart; because she ought to be the empress of his soul; holding him in the willing bondage of attachment; and binding him in the congenial chains and slavery of love. Well, I should like to persuade every working-man loyally to share his wages with his wife. We talk about a spendthrift government, forgetting that it is the prerogative of government to spend money, while it is the prerogative of the governed to obtain it. In like manner it is the business of man to get the cash, and the privilege of woman to spend it. Sometimes, it must be confessed, the wife rather over-does her part, and lays out a little more than the husband can contrive to lay in, but this is an exception. And it is far better, far worthier, far nobler for a thrifty man to be embarrassed by an extravagant wife, than for an industrious patient woman to be pined and pinched by the immoderation or selfishness of a man. It is the bounden duty of every workingman to make his wife's lap the bank in which he invests his weekly earnings. I can't think how it is that no lady will take compassion upon me, seeing what a model husband I should make. But, apart from my own case entirely, which I fear is a