memorable demand made by his indignant father, at the bar of the House of Commons, for the five Members who had withdrawn, terminated in the Buonaparte of that day being enabled to exclaim, if he would, in the cant of his courtiers, "Moab [England] is my washpot; over Edom [Scotland] will I cast out my shoe: upon Philistia [Ireland] will I triumph."
If we may add to these opposed illustrations (stepping three or four centuries back) Henry VI. whom nature designed for a monk in his own times, and for a Moravian in ours, seems out of the question: but the seventh Harry would have gone near to mulct them of all their property without calling in Empson or Dudley: and Henry VIII. would shortly have annihilated any of his subjects who had had the temerity to menace him in this fashion.If we bring in the Brandenburgher, Frederic III. who, though absolute by prescription, did not rule with a leaden mace instead of a sceptre, like our Tudor, that Monarch would have suffered no Commissioner, or any other functionary in his dominions to forget the respect due to the throne, though the mantle of Atlas might be thrown over
of tonsor, made a stroke at him with his whip, to deter him: upon which the neighbours, who took up the affair as if by common consent, assured him he was knighted: and he was ever after called, Sir Richard: a distinction with which, however, he could not quarrel much, as it probably increased his custom.
