and the other to his wife,—­directed them at cross-purposes, so that the Queen was beducked and bedeared and requested to send a change of hose, and the wife was beprincessed and otherwise unwontedly besuperlatived, till the one feared for the wits of her ambassador, and the other for those of her husband.  In like manner it may be presumed that our speaker has misdirected some of his thoughts, and given to the whole theatre what he would have wished to confide only to a select auditory at the back of the curtain.  For it is seldom that we can get any frank utterance from men, who address, for the most part, a Buncombe either in this world or the next.  As for their audiences, it may be truly said of our people, that they enjoy one political institution in common with the ancient Athenians:  I mean a certain profitless kind of, ostracism, wherewith, nevertheless, they seem hitherto well enough content.  For in Presidential elections, and other affairs of the sort, whereas I observe that the oysters fall to the lot of comparatively few, the shells (such as the privileges of voting as they are told to do by the ostrivori aforesaid, and of huzzaing at public meetings) are very liberally distributed among the people, as being their prescriptive and quite sufficient portion.

The occasion of the speech is supposed to be Mr. Palfrey’s refusal to vote for the Whig candidate for the Speakership.—­H.W.]

No?  Hez he?  He haint, though?  Wut?  Voted agin him? 
Ef the bird of our country could ketch him, she’d skin him;
I seem ’s though I see her, with wrath in each quill,
Like a chancery lawyer, afilin’ her bill,
An’ grindin’ her talents ez sharp ez all nater,
To pounce like a writ on the back o’ the traitor. 
Forgive me, my friends, ef I seem to be het,
But a crisis like this must with vigor be met;
Wen an Arnold the star-spangled banner bestains,
Holl Fourth o’ Julys seem to bile in my veins. 10

Who ever’d ha’ thought sech a pisonous rig
Would be run by a chap thet wuz chose fer a Wig? 
’We knowed wut his princerples wuz ‘fore we sent him’? 
Wut wuz there in them from this vote to prevent him? 
A marciful Providunce fashioned us holler
O’ purpose thet we might our princerples swaller;
It can hold any quantity on ’em, the belly can,
An’ bring ’em up ready fer use like the pelican,
Or more like the kangaroo, who (wich is stranger)
Puts her family into her pouch wen there’s danger. 20
Aint princerple precious? then, who’s goin’ to use it
Wen there’s resk o’ some chap’s gittin’ up to abuse it? 
I can’t tell the wy on ‘t, but nothin’ is so sure
Ez thet princerple kind o’ gits spiled by exposure;[19]
A man that lets all sorts o’ folks git a sight on ’t
Ough’ to hev it all took right away, every mite on ’t;
Ef he cant keep it all to himself wen it’s wise to,
He aint one it’s fit to trust nothin’ so nice to.