Peerage for the People

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author, 1837 - Nobility - 804 pages
 

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Page 517 - O, for a muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention ! A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene ! Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars ; and, at his heels, Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, Crouch for employment.
Page 209 - Jove endued with every grace ; The glory of the Granard race ; Now destined by the powers divine The blessing of another line. Then, would you paint a matchless dame, Whom you'd consign to endless fame? Invoke not Cytherea's aid, Nor borrow from the blue-eyed maid; Nor need you on the Graces call ; Take qualities from Donegal*.
Page 42 - he lies floating many a rood," he is still a creature. His ribs, his fins, his whalebone, his blubber, the very spiracles through which he spouts a torrent of brine against his origin, and covers me all over with the spray, —everything of him and about him is from the throne. Is it for him to question the dispensation of the royal...
Page 42 - As there generally is some resemblance of character to create these relations, the favorite was in all likelihood much such another as his master. The first of those immoderate grants was not taken from the ancient demesne of the crown, but from the recent confiscation of the ancient nobility of the land.
Page 41 - I know not how it has happened, but it really seems, that, whilst his Grace was meditating his well-considered censure upon me, he fell into a sort of sleep. Homer nods; and the Duke of Bedford may dream; and as dreams (even his golden dreams) are apt to be ill-pieced and incongruously put together, his Grace preserved his idea of reproach to me, but took the subject-matter from the Crown grants to his own family. This is " the stuff of which his dreams are made.
Page 348 - The character of the reputed ancestors of some men, has made it possible for their descendants to be vicious in the extreme, without being degenerate. Those of your grace, for instance, left no distressing examples of virtue, even to their legitimate posterity ; and you may look back with pleasure to an illustrious pedigree, in which heraldry has not left a single good quality upon record to insult and upbraid you.
Page 348 - Charles the Second was a hypocrite of another sort, and should have died upon the same scaffold. At the distance of a century we see their different characters happily revived and blended in your Grace. Sullen and severe without religion, profligate without gaiety, you live like Charles II. without being an amiable companion, and, for aught I know, may die as his father did without the reputation of a martyr.
Page 466 - Confused murmurs again ran through the House, it was visibly affected, every character, in a moment, seemed involuntarily rushing to its Index, some pale, some flushed, some agitated ; there were few countenances to which the heart did not despatch some messenger. Several Members withdrew before the question could be repeated, and an awful momentary silence succeeded their departure. The Speaker rose slowly from that chair which had been the proud source of his...
Page 547 - Nature, which cast him in her coarsest mould, had not bestowed on him any of the external insignia of high descent. His person, large, muscular, and clumsy, was destitute of grace or dignity, though he possessed much activity. He might indeed have been mistaken for a grazier or a butcher, by his dress and appearance ; but intelligence was marked in his features, which were likewise expressive of frankness and sincerity.
Page 466 - With that dignity which never failed to signalize his official actions, he held up the bill for a moment in silence — he looked steadily around him on the last agony of the expiring parliament. He at length repeated, in an emphatic tone, ' As many as are of opinion that THIS BILL do pass, say aye.

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