Leaves from an English Solicitor s Note Book.

tioneering dodge which had to be met with a counter-stroke of electioneering genius. At this time Mr. Mac Price was laid by the heels in London with a severe attack of gout, unable even to give a little dinner party, much less to travel down to Rottenton, but his in terest in the fate of the pending election was unabated, and, as I was then an equally keen politician in the same cause, he despatched me down privately to confer with the elec tion agent of the Conservative candidate on the state of affairs. I learned from the agent that the contest promised to be a close one, especially as he could by no means rely on the votes of the 'longshoremen, who had lost confidence in Briggs as their oracle, now that fortune had deserted him, but the agent thought that if he (Briggs) could only regain his old ascendency and work their votes, as no one but he could do, all would be well. I told him I thought the 'longshore votes could be counted on, and that he need not waste his energies upon them, but devote his talents to securing the votes of the leading tradesmen, principally the publicans, leaving the 'longshoremen to be reached by other in fluences, as to which, in the interests of " pu rity of election," he had better not be too inquisitive. I then betook myself to the lit tle shop tenanted by Briggs, who did not know me, though I easily recognized him by reason of his defective understanding. I requested the luxury of a shave at his experienced hands, and, when the little shaving parlor was empty, I confided to him that his old friend, Mac Price had sent me down specially to inquire into the state of his health and that of his donkey, and whether the mechanical leg fully answered all his anticipations. These few words of in troduction made him turn several colors, but not yellow, and he poured forth the full tide of his troubles. Of course, my own heart was deeply moved with the tale of his woes, and by his threatened apostacy from the true blue creed; however, I thought I discerned signs of wavering about him, and hoped that a spark of the true faith still remained capa

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ble of being blown into a bright flame by the use of the right means. I intimated, of course, that it was out of my power to make any defi nite promise, but that I could not help think ing that the same kind of providence which had provided a wooden leg, and a real live donkey, in the time of his former trouble, might send him help in his new distress; that I knew there were still wealthy members of the London Stock Exchange who only longed to discover such cases as his for making a good use of the riches which a good Providence rained upon them, and that it was a pity for him to desert the true blue princi ples of his former creed merely because a much loved donkey had been called (prematurely, it might be), to his long earned rest; that though there was, so far as I knew, no re corded instance of a donkey having been actually raised from the dead, yet they were a class of animals who were continually prop agating fresh specimens of their own species, which were at all times procurable in the open markets of commerce, and that a beneficent Providence might possibly in the days of darkness open the hearts of good men to procure from one of those markets a younger and more vigorous animal better qualified than his lamented predecessor to bear the weight of so doughty a champion of the true blue cause for many years to come; that as to the rent, he must remember that one of the characteristics of true charity was that it never faileth. I pointed out, also, that in the meantime it was only clue to the local gentleman who had so opportunely come for ward with the temporary loan of the other animal, that he should use that animal in prosecuting his master's service by securing the votes of all the 'longshoremen, to be available at his (Brigg's) disposal on the polling day, which would be the more easily secured if the owner of the animal would also supply for their refreshment the usual modest allowance of beer and rum to which they, as voters, had been accustomed on pre vious occasions, and that, after the election,