myself, if not absolutely at home, yet unconstrained and unembarrassed.

"The King sets an example to the household in his attention to his guests. He asks them all to drink wine with him, from the highest to the lowest. Indeed, he asked me twice-the second time probably because he had forgotten the first. The dishes are brought round by servants, the dessert only being on the table, with magnificent gold candelabra and vases, &c.; the tablecloth is therefore not removed. Plates, silver; servants, of course, in great numbers, and exceedingly attentive. The Queen and the ladies rise, and leave the room; and after no great interval, the King rises, and is followed by the gentlemen, if they please, to the drawing-room. After the departure of the ladies, Sir Augustus D'Esté and I had a long chat; and after the King had withdrawn to the drawing-room, I was obliged to remind him that, as the scene was new to me, I was anxious to see what was going on in the drawing-room. 'I had almost forgotten,' he replied; but come, and I'll introduce you to some of the ladies.' Well, we entered the drawing-room, where ladies and gentlemen were dispersed much in the way they are in any other room. The ladies—many of them at work, but the conversation was in a low tone, no voice being heard except the King's. In the music-room there was obviously less restraint. The Queen's band occupied the room, and played at intervals. At one table sat the Queen, Lady Mayo, Miss D'Esté, Marchioness Wellesley, and some other lady. They were all employed in embroidering. On the opposite side sat the King and Lady Maryborough on a sofa ; and the remainder of the ladies and gentlemen were disposed in groups, in different parts of the room; but it seemed, on entering the music-room, as if they laid aside a mantle of ceremony, and talked and chatted with less reserve. This cannot be a happy state of things, however, though very well to look at once. Well, the music ceases; presently the Queen rises. The ladies form in two lines at the door, and the Queen kisses the cheek of each of her own ladies of honour. They in return kiss her hand. She then disappears. The King follows, and then the devil take the hindmost."

By this time Drummond and his friend Robe had established themselves in a house in Park Road, with a general servant, Margaret, a most excellent woman, and a page, to attend upon them. In the letter just quoted there is a reference to Robe's mother-Lady Robe-and to two of the Miss Robes, as visiting the friends, seeing to the putting up of their curtains, and to other domestic arrangements. The page was Margaret's antithesis. "We are now very comfortable," says Drummond, "saving having a young flibbertygibbet of a boy, who must be one of the devil's imps, I think, except that he speaks the truth, be it for or against him, and, indeed, it is very rarely in his favour." In another letter, he says he has to cuff the imp occasionally on the ears-a cuff being the only argument he will listen to. The Park Road establishment was not long continued. Robe's mother died suddenly in February 1831, when it was proper that he should be more with his sisters, and the house which he shared with Drummond became no longer needful to him.

A near neighbour in Park Road was Mr Bellenden Ker, with whom Mr Drummond became acquainted. Mr Ker was a Chancery barrister, who also enjoyed a considerable literary reputation. Than one of his works, The Archæology of English Rhymes and Phrases," I know no book, in its way, more curious and ingenious. At his house Drummond made the acquaintance of many distinguished people, and notably of Miss Hariett Martineau and Lord Brougham.

There is an account of his first meeting with Lord Brougham, an event which was powerfully to affect his career, in a letter to his mother, dated March 26, 1831. "By the way," he says, "I dined with the Lord Chancellor the other day, not at his own house, but at the

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house of an intimate friend of his, a Mr Ker, a Chancery barrister, to whom I was introduced some time ago, and with whom I have become very intimate. Mrs Ker is a pleasant woman, and their society is very agreeable. Well, the Lord Chancellor, it appears, had expressed a desire to see the brilliant light which he had heard of; and Mr Ker told him he dared say that I would show it him with pleasure. Accordingly, the Chancellor fixed a day to dine with him, and I put up the apparatus in Mr Ker's greenhouse, the lamp being directed to the drawing-room. There were only eight persons present, all intimate friends of Brougham's; so that the conversation, at and after dinner, about men and things, more especially the Reform question, was most entertaining and interesting. The Chancellor was in great spirits, and talked the whole time. After returning to the drawing-room, I displayed the light, at which they expressed great admiration, though the Chancellor seemed greatly afraid of his eye, and could hardly be persuaded to look at it. I spied him, however, peeping at a corner, and immediately turned the reflector full upon him, but he fled instanter. He started immediately afterwards, at eleven o'clock, for Lord Grey's."

There is much sprightliness exhibited in the letters of this season. Everything was going smoothly with Mr Drummond, and with success there was an accession of geniality and joyousness. In one of his letters there is an amusing essay on the use, abuse, and manufacture of porridge, accompanied with diagrams of course, as if it were to be laid before the Royal Society. There is a frequency of fun. His fortunes, health, and spirits were alike excellent.

From the meeting with Lord Brougham may be dated the end of his scientific career. It did not

actually end then, but his intervals of study were few from this till the time of his final absorption in politics. Lieutenant Drummond, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, reputed inventor of the measuring bars, and fresh from Ireland after accomplishing one of the most delicate and interesting geodetical operations ever performed-now astonishing the town with his brilliant light, as he had years before astonished the savans— was a man of mark, to be everywhere received and courted. In manners very modest and gentle, he created none of those jealousies which often prove obstacles to the success of men of parts. And while few, if any, made him the subject of detraction, the many who knew him well, and loved him, spread his credit for general accomplishments as remarkable as the particular achievements on which rested his public reputation. An upright, able, and indefatigable public servant, his character as a private gentleman was wholly unblemished. Such was Thomas Drummond, and such was his reputation, when, in the thirty-third year of his age, he began to make the acquaintance of political personages, and stood on the threshold of political life.

CHAPTER X.

THE BOUNDARY COMMISSION; THE MATHEMATICS OF

REPRESENTATION.

IN April 1831, the Government of Lord Grey, having been defeated in committee on the first Reform Bill, offered their resignations to the King, but he would not accept them. A dissolution of Parliament followed, and then a general election. In June, the second Reform Bill was introduced in the new House of Commons. The House went into committee upon it on the 12th of July, the committee reported on the 7th September, and on the 21st the Bill was carried triumphantly through the Commons. It was debated in the House of Lords early in October, and thrown out by an unexpectedly large majority. Late in the same month Parliament was prorogued, that it might reassemble, and go over the whole matter again. On the 6th of December it was again in session, and on the 12th Lord John Russell moved for leave to bring in the third Reform Bill. This bill, as every one knows, after undergoing some slight modifications, became law on the 7th June 1832. It differed in some particulars from its predecessors; it differed from them, more especially, in being founded on pretty full information.

The principle of the bill, as announced by Lord Grey, was Representation not Nomination, the dis