I had been reading, one morning last week, Mr. Carpue's ingenious essay on making noses and lips, by cutting flesh for that purpose, from other parts of the body; I had also happened to dip into Doctor Spurzheim's fanciful Theory of the Characteristic Organization of Skulls; and when, on my return from attending the debates of the House of Commons that night, I had retired to rest, these three subjects continued, it seems, to occupy my mind, and they mingled themselves (as our sleeping thoughts usually do) in such a strange and yet ingenious confusion as to produce in my mind the following extraordinary succession of images and ideas.

I thought that one evening, when I, as usual, took my place in the back row of the Gallery, the House appeared uncommonly crowded, and a general expectation seemed to be entertained as if something extraordinary was about to take place.

I soon observed, indeed, that the Clerks, Messrs.

Dyson, Lee, and Rickman,* were not in their usual chairs, which were occupied, to my great astonishment, by Sir Everard Home, Mr. Cline, and a tall elderly Gentleman, whose name I did not know. Instead of inkstands, pens, and paper, which usually covered the table, I observed several cases of surgeon's instruments; saws and knives of various sizes, lint, bottles of styptic, &c. Whilst I was looking on this strange preparation with equal surprise and curiosity, the elderly Gentleman before mentioned, who sat in Mr. Lee's chair, and whom I heard the Speaker call to by the name of Doctor Spurzheim, stood up and read a paper entitled "The Report of the Craniological Committee." This Report was very detailed, but the substance appeared to be that with a view of procuring unanimity in this difficult crisis of the Country, and of effecting a solid union of parties and persons on

Three clerks of the House of Commons.

both sides of the House, a mutual interchange should take place between the several leading men of a part of their skulls, by which, as the report stated, there would be effected a union of organs, and of course of feelings and opinions, which could not but conduce to harmony, by creating a coincidence of temper and judgment between persons, however opposite to each other they might have previously been.

When the report was read and agreed to, the Speaker addressed Mr. DAVIES GIDDY, who, methought, had been the Chairman of the Committee, and directed him, in an authoritative tone, to name his skulls." Upon which the Hon. Member handed up a long list of names.

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Mr. CHARLES WYNNE then spoke to the order of the proceedings; he had read the Journals four times over, twice backwards, and twice forwards, but was not able to find any precedent exactly in point. Lord Russell and the late Mr. Algernon

Sidney's cases, tricesimo quarto, Caroli secundi, were the nearest; but as these two Members had lost the whole head-tam sinciput quam occiput, as Sir Simon D'Ewes expresses it, he would not propose it as a precedent to be implicitly followed on the present occasion.

After some further discussion on the law of Parliament as to Members losing their heads—in which the case of Messrs. Lethbridge and Pochin, and the more recent case of Messrs. Brougham and W. H. Lyttelton,* were referred to—it was settled that the House should be called over in pairs, and that Hon. Members should be put into the hands of Sir Everard and Mr. Cline, respectively, each of whom, after sawing off the hinder part of his patient's skull, should hand it to his Colleague, to be placed on the other head.

* These four members were supposed metaphorically to have lost their heads on particular occasions; Mr. Brougham from over zeal, the other three by forgetting the speeches they had prepared.-E.

All preliminaries being thus arranged, Mr. Speaker standing up, exclaimed with a loud voice, "The House will be pleased to be silent while their skulls are sawing," and immediately called upon Lord CASTLEREAGH and Mr. TIERNEY.

The noble Lord obeyed without hesitation, but the Right Hon. Gentleman seemed rather to hesitate, and muttered, methought, some reflections on Mr. Speaker's partiality in selecting him for one of the first subjects of so dangerous an operation. The House, however, took the Speaker's part very warmly, and Mr. TIERNEY was obliged to acquiesce. The Noble Lord and the Right Honourable Member now knelt down, and laid their heads on the knees of the respective Surgeons, who with the proper instruments, and with astonishing skill and celerity, cut off the crown of each head, and interchanging the sections, through the means of Doctor Spurzheim, who sat between them, placed with great dexterity Mr. TIERNEY'S occiput on Lord CASTLE