Burke Manuscript

Burke Manuscript: Page 276

Transcript

There were the carters to deal with and anybody who knew old Dick Sutcliffe and George Allen, and some of the others, would swear that talking wouldn’t hurry them. But things had changed when Mr Montgomery came there. The new era was beginning. Mr Montgomery soon began to dabble in politics but appeared to me to be always on the see saw, always excepting his devotion to the Peninsula and Little River. There is a great deal of timber country in that locality.

There used to be terrible debates, want of confidence, the previous question and all the paraphernalia of the old world. Intrigues were on foot and the parish would listen open mouthed to the awful designs of Maskell and Wynn Williams or their forerunners and other eminent statesmen. General Whish the hall porter for so many years was the Sergeant at Arms, and was quite a terror dressed up in evening costume. His duties were mixed, and the Sergeant at Arms had to lower his dignity at times and perhaps bring in a glass of water.

[insertion]That was a rather rich description of Wynn Williams of the old Provincial days, and poor Whish and his angular legs. Of course the thing was ridiculous, but had John H. only been here, and with his retentive memory, entertained the House with a sketch of the old Dirt and Darkness Club of many years ago, bringing in as adjuncts, Teddy Preston and Old Oswald, and a few other notabilities of those days, the scene might have been quite as funny. There are other little data that would furnish quite as humorous a quarter of an hour as the turning into ridicule, by a fortunate adventurer, of an unfortunate and afflicted gentleman like Mr Whish. Some people, who when toadying to the crowd from public platforms, ridiculed in years gone by Royalty and Nobility, but who now are fond of alluding, quite unconsciously, to their titled relatives, may be interested in knowing that Mr Whish was the son of an Indian Officer not unknown, General Whish. The old warriors of the Upper House may have heard of him.

Those old Provincial Councils were a good school for rising politicians. Sir John Hall was always a Member, and took a leading part. The late Sir Cracroft Wilson was also in; and you may imagine made