“’And now, gentlemen, before I sit down there is but one observation more that I wish to make.  If it was only idontified with myself I would never notice it—­but it’s not only idontified with me but with you, gentlemen—­for I am sorry to say there is a snake in the grass—­a base, dangerous, Equivocal, crawling reptile among us—­who, wherever truth and loyalty is concerned, never has a leg to stand upon, or can put a pen to paper but with a deceitful calumniating attention.  He who can divulge the secrets of our Lodge’—­(Here there was another furious look sent across which received a polite bow and smile as before)—­’who can divulge, gentlemen, the secrets of our Lodge, and allude to those who have been there—­I refer, gentlemen, to a paragraph that appeared in the Equivocal some time ago—­in which a hint was thrown out that I was found by the editor of that paper lying-drunk in the channel of Castle Cumber Main-street, opposite his office—­that he brought me in, recovered me, and then helped me home.  Now, gentlemen, I’ll just mention one circumstance that will disprove the whole base and calumnious charge—­it is this—­on rising next morning I found that I had eight and three halfpence safe in my pocket—­and yet that reptile says that he carried me into his house!!!  Having thus, gentlemen, triumphantly refuted that charge, I have the pleasure of drinking your healths—­the healths of all honest men, and confusion to those who betray the secrets of an Orange Lodge!’

“As each paper had its party in the Lodge, it is not to be supposed that this attack upon the Editor of the Equivocal was at all received with unanimous approbation.  Far from it.  Several hisses were given, which again were met by cheers, and these by counter cheers.  In this disorder Mr. Cantwell rose, his face beaming with mildness and benignity—­sweetness and smiles—­and having bowed, stood all meekness and patience until the cheering was over.

“‘Brother Cantwell,’ said Solomon, ’remember to discard self-reliance—­let thy sup—­support be from ’—­but before he could finish, brother Cantwell turned round, and blandly bowing to him, seemed to say—­for-he did not speak—­

“’My dear brother M’Slime, I follow your admirable advice; you see I do—­I shall’

“‘Mr. Chairman,’ said he, ’gentlemen and dear brothers’—­here he paused a moment, whilst calmly removing the tumbler out of his way that he might have room to place his hand upon the table and gently lean towards the chairman.  He then serenely smoothed down the frill of his shirt, during which his friends cheered—­and ere commencing he gave them another short, and, as it were, parenthetical bow.  ’Mr. Chairman, gentlemen, and dear brothers, I do not rise upon this very unpleasant occasion—­unpleasant to me it is, but not on my account—­for the purpose of giving vent to the coarse effusions of an unlettered mind, that shapes its vulgar outpourings in bad language and worse feeling.  No, I am incapable