Elections have been the order of the day with us as well as with you. I
am glad to tell you that Lord Longford's troubles are over; he is now
here, and has just been telling us that his victory for Colonel Hercules
was as complete as his heart could wish. There would have been a duel
but for Admiral Pakenham. One gentleman in his speech said that another
had made the drummer of his corps play "Protestant Boys." The other
said, "That's a lie;" and both were proceeding to high words, when the
Admiral stepped between them, and said, very gravely, "Gentlemen, I did
not know this meeting was a music meeting, but since you appeal to us
electors to decide your cause by your musical merits, let the past be
past; and now for the present give us each of you a song, and here's the
sheriff,"--who has no more ear than a post--"shall be judge between
you." Everybody laughed, and the two angry gentlemen had to laugh off
their quarrel.
Another gentleman said to the Admiral, after the election was over, "Do
you know, I had a mind to have stood myself; if I had, what would you
have said?"--"That it was all a game of brag, and that, as you had the
shuffling of the pack, there was no knowing what knave might turn up."
Lord Longford told us of Colonel Hercules Pakenham, at the siege of
Badajos, walking with an engineer. A bomb whizzed over their heads and
fell among the soldiers, as they were carrying off the wounded. When the
Colonel expressed some regret, the engineer said, "I wonder you have not
steeled your mind to these things. These men are carried to the
hospital, and others come in their place. Let us go to the depot." Here
the engineer had his wheelbarrows all laid out in nice order, and his
pickaxes arranged in stars and various shapes; but, just as they were
leaving the depot, a bomb burst in the midst of them. "Oh, heavenly
powers, my picks!" cried the engineer, with clasped hands, in despair.
_To_ C. SNEYD EDGEWORTH, IN DUBLIN.