Pray, sir, what is it called ?" I could not answer him for laughing; but he seemed quite unconscious of his own absurdity.
Ever yours T.B.M.
During all the period covered by this correspondence the town of Leeds was alive with the agitation of a turbulent, but not very dubious, contest.

Macaulay's relations with the electors whose votes he was courting are too characteristic to be omitted altogether from the story of his life; though the style of his speeches and manifestoes is more likely to excite the admiring envy of modern members of Parliament, than to be taken as a model for their communications to their own constituents.

This young politician, who depended on office for his bread, and on a seat in the House of Commons for office, adopted from the first an attitude of high and almost peremptory independence which would have sat well on a Prime Minister in his grand climacteric.

The following letter, (some passages of which have been here omitted, and others slightly condensed,) is strongly marked in every line with the personal qualities of the writer.
London: August 3, 1832.
"My dear Sir,--I am truly happy to find that the opinion of my friends at Leeds on the subject of canvassing agrees with that which I have long entertained.

The practice of begging for votes is, as it seems to me, absurd, pernicious, and altogether at variance with the true principles of representative government.