I know few men I would go farther to serve than Jack
Lee.' _Letter to the People of Scotland_, p. 75. Lord Eldon said that
Lee, in the debates upon the India Bill, speaking of the charter of the
East India Company, 'expressed his surprise that there could be such
political strife about what he called "a piece of parchment, with a bit
of wax dangling to it." This most improvident expression uttered by a
Crown lawyer formed the subject of comment and reproach in all the
subsequent debates, in all publications of the times, and in everybody's
conversation.' Twiss's _Eldon_, iii. 97. In the debate on Fox's India
Bill on Dec. 3, 1783, Lee 'asked what was the consideration of a
charter, a skin of parchment with a waxed seal at the corner, compared
to the happiness of thirty millions of subjects, and the preservation of
a mighty empire.' _Parl. Hist_. xxiv. 49. See Twiss's _Eldon_, i. 106-9,
and 131, for anecdotes of Lee; and _ante_, ii. 48, note 1.
[631] 'For now we see _through_ a glass darkly; but then face to face.'
I _Corinthians_, xiii. 12.
[632] Goldsmith notices this in the _Haunch of Venison_:--
My friend bade me welcome, but struck me quite dumb
With tidings that Johnson and Burke would not come;
For I knew it (he cried), both eternally fail,
The one with his speeches, and _t'other with Thrale_.
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