Page:The life and death of the Irish parliament.djvu/208

 APPENDIX A (PAGE 174).

BUSHE'S WIT. Another specimen of Bushe's wit has been given me* by a friend, who preserved the story from oblivion. During the debates upon the Union, Mr. Duquerry, K.C., took a very desponding view of the prospects of the country, in the event of the Union being carried. He was a very eloquent man, and had a voice superior in sweetness even to Bushe or Blackburne. On one occasion, having made a speech of the above character, Toler stood up to reply to him, upon which Duquerry immediately quitted the House, and Toler exclaimed " He is gone,

'Most musical, most melancholy!'"

Bushe, who replied to Toler, said, he had not done justice to himself or Duquerry, in not quoting the first line of the dis- tich

"Sweet bird, that shuns the voice of folly."

APPENDIX B (PAGE 203).

I have been reminded by Sir B. Burke, that the Mace of the Irish House of Commons is now at Antrim Castle, an honoured heir-loom. The last Speaker, Mr. Foster, a deter- mined anti-Unionist, refused to surrender "the bauble" to any but the constituted authority, by whom it had been intrusted to his keeping ; and consequently it has descended to Mr. Foster's grandson and heir, the present Viscount Massereene and Ferrard, K.P.