the toga virilis that alone fits a man for public life. But even sixty among the Romans was by some other laws set aside, and changed for, and limited to, that of thirty-five, but reduced afterwards by Augustus to thirty; though Piticus supposes a mistake here in the text, and that instead of thirty-five and thirty, it ought to read twenty-five and twenty. Aristotle fixed the military age at seventeen. (Polit. lib. viii.)

The age for holding offices in the city, as quæstor, ædile, tribune of the people, &c., is not determined by the annual laws of Villius, but appears to have been the twenty-seventh year. How different is this from the protracted gestation of civic honours in our degenerate days! Alas!-how often must a worthy alderman of the nineteenth century exert his powers of locomotion, and like

"Sir William Curtis, late Lord Mayor.

Remove from this here house to that ere,"

before he can hope to attain to the civic chair! how many nightly vigils must he keep over cheese or china, over beer or bridles, over rubies or red her rings, before he can at the Mansion House

"Hush'd and satiate lay,

And chew in dreams the custard of the day!"

We have the experience of all past ages to prove how much the weal or woe of nations depend, upon the capacity, integrity, and judgment of their rulers. But from the undiminished (nay, increased) sway of the old ladies this truth would seem to be totally disregarded.

Dinarchus, in his oration against Demosthenes, has the following passage.-"To what causes, Athenians, is the prosperity or calamity of a state to be ascrib ed? To none so eminently as to its ministers and its generals. Turn your eyes to the state of Thebes. It subsisted once, it was once great,-it had its soldiers and commanders. There was a time, (our elder citizens declare it, and on that authority I speak,) when Pelopidas led the 'sacred band ;' when Epaminondas and his colleagues commanded the army. Then did the Thebans gain the victory at Leuctra; then did they pierce into the territories of Lacede mon, before deemed inaccessible; then did they achieve many and noble deeds. The Messenians they reinstated in their city, after a depression of four hun

dred years. To the Arcadians they gave freedom and independence; whilst the world viewed their illustrious conduct with applause.

"On the other hand,-at what time did they act ignobly unworthy of their native magnanimity ?— When Timolaus called himself Philip's friend, and was corrupted by his gold; when the traitor Proxenus led the mercenary forces collected for the expedition to Amphissa;-when Theagenes, wretched and corrupt, like this man, was made commander of their band: then did these three men confound and utterly destroy the affairs of that state, and of all Greece. So indisputably true is it, that leaders are the great cause of all the good and all the evil that can attend a community. We see this in the instance of our own state. Reflect, and say at what time was this city great and eminent in Greece; worthy of our ancestors, and of their illustrious actions? When Conon (as our ancient citizens inform us) gained the naval victory of Cnidos;-when Iphicrates cut off the detachment of the Lacedemonians;-when Chalcias defeated the Spartan fleet at Maxos;-when Timotheus triumphed at the sea-fight near Corcyra :-then, Athenians, then it was that the Lacedemonians, whose wise and faithful leaders, whose adherence to the ancient institutions had rendered them illustrious, were reduced so low as to appear before us like abject supplicants, and implore for mercy.

"Our state, which they had subverted by means of those who then conducted our affairs, once more became the sovereign of Greece; and no wonder, when the men now mentioned were our generals; and Archinus and Cephalus our ministers. For what is the great security of every state and nation? Good generals and able ministers."-Leland's Demosthenes. Now observe, my lords and gentlemen, Dinarchus attributes all the former brilliant achievements, and healthy tone of the Lacedemonian state, first to the wisdom and sound policy of its leaders, who were most assuredly both anti-ancient and anti-feminine; and secondly to an adherence to the 'ancient institutions' of the country. But mind, he does not say by an adherence to the ancient ladies. Pause, then, my lords and gentlemen, before you allow any old woman, or any set of old women to urge you on into the total destruction of all the ancient institutions'

of your country. Municipal reform can never avail you, as long as corporate reform is still wanting; that is, as long as an influential old woman of either sex is allowed to remain extant.

I am well aware how many Timolauses there are among the Reformers, who, calling themselves Reform's friend, allow themselves to be corrupted by Reform's gold; for there is Reform gold, as well as Tory gold, though it must be acknowledged that the former much resembled the sovereigns that General Jackson has in that land of liberty, America, converted into eagles, inasmuch as the great alloy of republican dross it undergoes considerably lessens the sterling value of the legitimate coin.

All such Timolaus Reformers will of course be the very first to object to, the Corporate, Ancient, Female Reform which I shall propose; and indeed it would be the height of ingratitude in them did they not do so; for it is as clear as noon-day that the first Reformer that ever existed was an old woman! But in making this assertion, let it be understood that I do not mean the slightest personal allusion to My Lord Grey; heaven forbid! I have far too much respect for the order-his order I should say. No, I allude to a far more ancient and enterprising old lady, whom, though anonymous, is not for that reason the less celebrated in the well-known nursery epic, beginning

"There was an old woman tossed up in a blanket
Seventy times as high as the moon;

Where she was going I could not but ask her,
For in her hand she carried a Broom:

Old woman-old woman-old woman, said I,
Whither, ah whither up so high?

To sweep the cobwebs off the sky,

And I'll be with you by-and-bye, by-and-bye.

Now I beg leave to state, that after the most unwearied literary and antiquarian researches, I have discovered that the word Broom at the close of the fourth stanza, is in the black letter edition of the "Nursery Anthology," spelt Brougham; it is also evident, that cobwebs bear a typical allusion to the celestial poor laws; but notwithstanding the old lady's very sweeping reform, it does not appear that the planetry parishes have ever reaped any advantages

from it, especially Apheta,* who has been in a sextile position nearer the sun ever since: this can only be accounted for by a supposition that when this enterprising and apogeeic old lady had gone up so high, like Astolpho, she went still farther, even to the moon, in search of her reason, and having been much struck (i. e. moonstruck) with all she beheld, has remained there ever since, filtering her plans of reform through the reflected rays of the planet she now inhabits, and is still willing (with that philanthropy which first prompted so sublime an enterprise) to give a mouthful of moonshine to every hungry, needy, speculating, adventurous radical, who shall invoke the spirit of Reform as embodied in her from whom it first emanated; come they in the trappings of pauper diplomacy, the Peachum craft of pickpocket patriotism, the foolscap uniform of radico-political pamphlets, or the beer and beefsteak gullability of "Free and Independent Electors."(!) No matter; she has still moonshine enough for them all; and it is quite astonishing how long the latter can subsist upon this light but seemingly nutritive food. The Reform Bill itself, that grand panacea for all earthly ills, social, civil, and political, seems, by-the-bye, to have been framed upon the model of the magical Alracadalera of Serenus Samonicus, preceptor to the younger Gordian, as a charm or amulet for curing agues, and preventing other diseases; to have the effect, the word was to be written on paper and repeated, omitting each time the last letter in the former, that the whole may form a kind of inverted cone, in this man

ner:

Alracadabra

Alracadabr

Alracadab

Alracada

Alracad

Alraca

Alrac

Alra

Alr

AI

A

The name of the planet, which is the giver of life in a nativity.

So that it has this property, that which way soever the letters are taken, beginning from the apex, and ascending from the left to the right, they make the same word, or as some would have it, the same sentiment, as is found in the first whole line; this paper must be suspended round the neck by a thread; but according to Julius Africanus, another ancient writer, the pronouncing the word in the same manner will do just as well. Here then is the whole scheme of the Reform Bill! beginning with a mystical and highsounding word, becoming gradually less as you examine it, and eventually terminating in schedule A. The magical operation of the whole consisting in and depending on repeating the word, in every possible way, and reiterating it on every possible occasion.

Nobody being more fully aware than I am, my lords and gentlemen, of the feline unkillability of old women of both sexes, I have never for a moment entertained the utopian vision of exterminating them. No, I merely propose to suppress them, and that in the following manner; that all male old women entertaining an overweaning opinion of themselves be forthwith shipped off to Lilliput, in order that then and there they may find their own level, allowing them to travel by steam, that they may have the pleasure of vapouring to the last; that all female old women may in like manner be instantly transported to Brobdignag, in the hope of making them think a little less of themselves, which may perhaps be brought to bear by the time they have had their heads nearly gnawed off, like poor Gulliver, by half-a-dozen Brobdignag babies; but with regard to this " consummation so devoutly to be wished," nothing approximating to certainty can be surmised, as they will be by far the most troublesome part of the cargo; we can only hope that they will not be like the old woman in the Irish song, who, after eloping with his Satanic majesty, was politely returned by him to her sposo, with this very ungallant assertion—

"What to do with her I cannot well tell,

For she's not fit for heaven, and won't stay in h-1."

I shall now proceed to give a catalogue rasionnè of all the old ladies that should come under the Suppression Act, and as Lindley Murray asserts that "the masculine is worthier than the feminine," the former