Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/82

 is more desirable than a dishonest law-giver of great genius. Julius Cæsar was a poor man of intellect; and what did he, with all his genius and valour, do for the world? George Washington, having a competent estate, and if not a brilliant genius, a competent understanding, might be, as compared with Julius Cæsar, designated a "rich dullard." I should very much prefer a rich dullard of such kind to a poor man of intellect of the other kind.

There is a good deal of misconception on the subject of parliamentary seats. The importance formerly attached to a seat in Parliament, when a man's name at the corner of a letter gave the letter a sort of mysterious and sacred character over the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, made many persons incur expense and inconvenience to have the privilege of sitting with their hats on upon the green leather benches, and having the talismanic letters M.P. placed after their names on the covers of all letters addressed to them. There were also ambitious young men who might have discovered at school and college that they possessed that sort of ability which has received the name of parliamentary ability. Lord Macaulay says of Charles Montague:—