MEASURE BY MEASURE AND OTHER POLITICAL SATIRES FROM NEW BRUNSWICK

Mary Elizabeth Smith

The tradition of political satire in dramatic form was strong in New Brunswick from the Loyalist era up to the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Measure by Measure, concerned with a controversial non-sectarian school bill, is the last of a group of satires published in The New Dominion and True Humorist between 1866 and 1871. Two others, 'The Government in Session' and 'Northumbria', deal with different aspects of alleged government corruption.

La tradition de satire politique présentée sous forme dramatique au Nouvea-Brunswick fut forte entre le début de l'époque des Loyalistes et les années 1870. Measure by Measure, une pièce qui traite d'un projet de loi scolaire non-sectaire et contesté, est la dernière d'un groupe de pièces satiriques qui parurent entre 1866 et 1871 dans le New Dominion and True Humorist. Deux autres pièces, intitulées 'The Government in Session' et 'Northumbria', traitent des aspects différents d'allégations de corruption au sein du gouvernement.

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious Summer by this son of York

So begins 'Measure by Measure, or the Coalition in Secret Session', turning Shakespearean tragedy into mock-heroic verse drama for the purpose of influencing public opinion on contentious issues of the day. It was printed in seven segments from 25 February to 8 April 1871 in The New Dominion and True Humorist. That newspaper, established in 1864 as The Humorist, was, in the words of J. Russell Harper, a 'high calibre weekly devoted to Satire, Fun and Politics.' ¹ Accordingly, much of the satire was aimed at government figures who, in the opinion of the newspaper, were either corrupt or weak. The tone was frequently humourous, but not always, as illustrated by the cartoon of 30 December 1865 entitled 'New Brunswick Sold', showing a 'government huxter disposing of 'our fair domains' to the highest bidder'.²

Political satire through the medium of drama was almost as old as New Brunswick itself, having begun with the Loyalists. In 1798 Edward Winslow wrote a dramatic sketch, Substance of the Debates in the Young Robin Hood Society, presenting a spirited defence of government by an appointed loyalist elite, and published 'at the Request of a Number of the KING'S faithful Subjects in New Brunswick'. ³ Essentially a political tract, this writing ignored the rules of drama and did not pretend to be a true play. The first genuinely dramatic satire was 'The Triumph of Intrigue', which appeared in the 23 February and 2 and 9 March 1833 issues of The New Brunswick Courier, under the initials 'O. P.' (Public Opinion)⁴ This is an attack on the crown-appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands and on Sir Archibald Campbell, the new Lieutenant Governor, as well as on those who try to influence them and take away the authority of the Legislative Council. The leader of the 'domestics' (the Legislative Council), John Fairchild, compares the province to a forest and the crown appointments to 'wolves in the shape and appearance of watch dogs', ⁵ while Dick, another spokesman, claims that the estate 'is like a good milch cow badly fed, all going out, and nothing going in'. ⁶

'The Triumph of Intrigue' was clearly written to be read, not performed, even though the Courier reported on 9 March that it was 'the wish of several spirited Gentlemen ... to get it up as a Play, for the Benefit of the Poor'. The same could not be said for the next political satire to appear, Thomas Hill's 'The Provincial Association, or Taxing on Another'. ⁷ This was acquired by Henry W. Preston, manager and director of Hopley's Theatre in Saint John, and first presented on 2 April 1845. The Provincial Association that was the object of Hill's satire had been formed to combat government policy on protectionism, and it took its position with the utmost seriousness. Consequently the production led to a riot in the theatre which stopped the play and also caused material damage to the building. The admission price had to be raised in an attempt to keep out the rowdy element, and Mr Preston, who had been arrested on unspecified charges, was released just at curtain time when some of the company put up bail for him. Not surprisingly, the production sparked a raging controversy in the newspapers, with The Saint John Morning News calling Hill 'a miserable wretch' and The Saint John Herald and The Loyalist rallying to his defence and to the cause of free trade.⁸

Also in 1845, a political farce in four acts, entitled 'Political Intrigue; or the Best Way to Tar One Another', was published anonymously in the Morning News of 20 October. This condemned the vice of political patronage and, in its setting on Partridge Island at the mouth of the Saint John harbour, suggested the isolation, of government from the people. Like 'The Triumph of Intrigue', it was never performed.

The True Humorist (from 1867 The New Dominion and True Humorist) began in 1864 a series of satires, three of which, 'The Government in Session' (13 December 1865 - 7 April 1866), 'Northumbria' (6 March - 10 April 1869) and its farcical afterpiece 'A Trip to Frederictonia and back for $12.00' (17 April - 1 May 1869), and 'Measure by Measure' (1871), are concerned with political issues. Only four of the thirteen sections of 'The Government in Session' are known to survive.

'Measure by Measure' is chiefly concerned with a controversial, non-sectarian schools bill, together with the manoeuvres in the legislature which resulted in a coalition government bent on passing that bill.⁹ For some years the opinion had been widely expressed that the standard of education in the province needed improvement. Some people thought that this could be achieved by increasing government grants to denominational schools, while others believed that the answer lay in a system of free and non-sectarian schools supported by direct taxation. George E. King of Saint John, the Attorney General, was the leader of the non-sectarian element within the government, while Timothy Anglin, editor of The Morning Freeman, led the vocal Catholic opposition outside the Legislature. Although the principles of non-sectarian schools and of direct taxation were under severe attack in the press, the provincial election of June 1870 returned a House with a majority of members in favour of the proposed measure. At the opening of the Legislature on 16 February 1871, Lieutenant-Governor Wilmot's speech from the throne explained the government's intentions:

In comparison with this all other questions for legislative deliberation are of secondary importance. It is the first duty of the governing body to make provision for the education of every child. The children of the poorest in our land should have free access to schools, where they could receive at least the rudiments of an education which will qualify them for an intelligent performance of their duties as citizens.¹⁰

Despite the election, the government was insecure. Supported by the resolution of twenty-three members who had met in the Brayley House¹¹ on the night of the opening of the House and pledged themselves to bring down the government, Jacob Carvell Gough, leader of the opposition, rose in the Legislature and proposed a motion of non-confidence. Using as an excuse the absence of J.A. Beckwith, Provincial Secretary, due to an unnamed 'indisposition', King managed to delay the matter for one day. Then, precisely at noon the next day, he announced that the government had resigned and that the Lieutenant-Governor had called upon George L. Hatheway, of York County, to form a government. Shortly, the new government was seen to include most of the old leadership, together with those of the former opposition who would support the school bill. The purpose of the coalition was clear. Reactions in the press varied from outright hostility to the bill, to support of the bill but not of the political maneouvering, to The Telegraph's wholehearted backing, to The New Dominion's satire. The ninth and final scene of 'Measure by Measure' would be printed in The New Dominion four days before George King actually introduced the school bill on 12 April for what was to be a remarkably calm passage considering the public debate that preceded it.

The opening scene of 'Measure by Measure' is set in an apartment in the Barker House,¹² where members of the coalition have assembled behind closed doors. Irony is present from the outset, for the business which requires such secrecy is nothing more than a game of Muggins - a game requiring no skill, played with either cards or dominoes (both are used in the play), in which the players aim to steal points from one another. The scarcely disguised participants are Georgee (George E. King, who retained the office of Attorney General in the Transfer of power), Kelee (William M. Kelly of Chatham, new Commissioner of the Board of Works), Georgell (George L. Hathaway, of York Co., now Provincial Secretary), and Stephey (Benjamin R. Stevenson, of Charlotte Co., Surveyor General). Lindsa (the displaced Surveyor General, William Lindsay) is keeping score on a slate, while Beckwitt (the former Provincial Secretary, J.A. Beckwith), 'just recovering from his indisposition, [is] warming, by the fire, the fingers that had held the pen in the Secretary's Office' (scene 1).

Establishing its inflated mock-heroic tone early, the anonymous play begins with a travesty of Richard of Gloucester's soliloquy at the beginning of Shakespeare's Richard III:

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious Summer by this son of York,
And all the clouds that lowerd upon our House
Scattered forever by this Coalition.
Now may Gough's brow wrinkle with heavy frowns,
Georgell and Stephey stand as monuments
Of hateful treachery. What do we reck -
'Twas neck or nothing, and we chose the neck. (scene 1)

Hatheway is of course the 'son of York' whose advent has power to banish a political winter. The satire derives added bite from knowledge that Shakespeare's Richard has declared himself a villain in his soliloquy ('I am determined to prove a villain'), as Georgell and Stephey stand as monuments of treachery, their choice of 'neck' over 'nothing' being as deliberate and calculating as Richard's.

The dramatic action that follows, however, owes nothing to the linear rise and fall pattern Shakespeare provides for Richard's machinations. 'Measure by Measure''s action is loosely structured and episodic, finding unity through consistent satiric portraiture (chiefly of King and Hatheway) and through reiteration of the theme of conscience and of the game metaphor. Three of the nine scenes are set in the Barker House, where card playing and politically allusive conversation develop the themes and characters. The others illustrate various dubious and specific measures. Scene two in the Brayley House, between Kellee and Montgomeree, provides insight into the mode of appointment to public office, whereas scene five, in the Stubbs Hotel, and scene six, in front of the Bank of New Brunswick, show the coalition's attempt to 'make the people think we are at work' (scene 5), by promising money to the Board of Health. The latter is interpreted by The New Dominion's attack of 11 February 1871 on what it saw as the government's indifference to the Board of Health's struggle against an outbreak of smallpox: 'Everything has been managed with great economy, so great indeed that when the question was put to us by the St. John Board of Health, "Money or Small Pox?" we unhesitatingly answered, Small Pox'.

Two scenes deal variously with the Hanington bribery charge. The first, on the Empress Wharf, finds Georgee and Kelee, 'each with a valise containing a pair of clean shirts and a box of the "Eureka" collars' (scene 7a), on the point of departure for Nova Scotia on school-bill business. Georgee is giving last minute advice to Morrison, his partner in law, 'that we may / Far from the Local House, keep Hanington', The second scene shows the displacement of Davi Dess on the same case, in favour of 'friend Morozon' (scene 7b). (D.L. Hanington of Westmorland, an opposition member opposed to non-sectarian schools, allegedly attempted to buy the office of Attorney General. Morrison assisted W.H. Gilbert in the case, known as the Westmorland Scrutiny Case). Finally, scene nine, in the House of Lemuel (Lieutenant-Governor Lemuel A. Wilmot) discusses strategy appropriate for the House.

Hatheway, as Georgell, is, of course, the seasoned trickster of the piece ('More tricks in politics have I performed / Than e'er you dreamed of in your deep philosophy' - (scene 4). Called 'Judas, / Double-dyed traitor, double-shuffler, / Trickster -, all, all that is contemptable' [sic] (scene 1), he is the unrepentant master of the coalition's 'magic arts' (scene 4) of deception. Hatheway's reputation for changeableness was well-known.

He was noted for having been on both sides of the confederation question as well as of the school question, for last-minute abandonment of leaders Tilley, Albert Smith, and J.C. Gough. 'Doubles and Quits', he boasts in a card image, has been 'my life-long game' (scene 1). The bitterest and most direct attack on him, however, comes in the ironic relation of the brutal Hanson affair. Georgell speaks proudly of his prowess in battle:

I and my men fought Hanson and his sons.
The fight was o'er some lumber and I cried
'Blood I will have!' and straightway ran upon
My foe, and set my men upon the sons.
I used the handle of an axe, and felled
My adversary on the snowy ground,
And left my men to kick him, and my men
Abused the sons in truly manly style.
We came out victors in the bloody fight. (scene 4)

Then a brief question and answer sequence underlines the true savagery of the incident:

Smith: What was the number of your foes so fierce?
Georgell: No more than three, the old man and his sons.
Smith: How old was he whom thus you bravely felled?
Georgell: Eighty, but he was active for his age.
Smith: You did not say how many were your men.
Georgell: Fifteen or twenty, but all did not fight.
Kelee: I recollect the circumstances well.
Smith: I never heard of such a valiant deed. (scene 4)

This episode, which recalls a lumber dispute in December 1865 during the crown-land-jobbing scandal, is emphasized in other references to 'handles' (e.g., scene 6). The incident on which it is based happened on former crown lands along the Nashwaak River near Fredericton, purchased in a controversial deal by Alexander Gibson. B.M. Hanson gave his version in a letter dated 12 February 1866 in the Fredericton Farmer, reprinted in The True Humorist on 24 February 1866.

While 'Georgell' Hatheway is allowed to convict himself through energetic and direct self- revelation, the venom aimed at George E. King, the Methodist Attorney-General from Saint John who until recently had been his political opponent, is more indirect. Georgee, who 'went to Sunday School / And taught a Bible class once on a time' (scene 5), has, appropriately, a dislike of swearing but is frequently caught with the beginning of a mild 'Dam-' upon his lips. One who asserts that 'An honest man's the noblest work of God' (scene 4), he also, perhaps appropriately, 'never knew a trick in politics' - a reference to the inexperience (not necessarily the honesty) of a man who had entered the Legislature in 1868 and been appointed Attorney General only in 1870. Depicted ironically as a 'Christian statesman, model of a man', whose 'mind is pure, his motives doubly so - / At least 'twas thought so but a few months ago' (scene 1), he becomes a man of promise who fizzled out as surely as the ginger ale he imbibed in preference to the Irish whisky favoured by his colleagues. He is made to see the aptness of the comparison himself:

This ginger ale starts with a mighty 'pop',
Is sparkling bright and rather sharp at first,
'Tis somewhat frothy, very full of wind,
Which makes a splutter as it bubbles out;
Leave it awhile, it goes from worse to worse,
Becomes deprived of all that gave it worth,
And soon will disappoint the hopes it rais'd.
One thing is evident - it will not stand.
Such is the way with many things in life.
With what can ginger ale be best compar'd?
To what does it most strong resemblance bear?
No giant monster, nor yet fairy elf -
'Tis like - 'tis like Great heavens! 'tis like - myself. (scene 4)

The theme of conscience / remorse is developed largely through Georgee. Scene one ends with a melodramatic revelation of his inner torture:

Oh that I might to my successors speak,
And say, 'I charge thee, keep from Coalition!
By that I fell, and so must others do;
Be not too vain; think of the men who trust thee;
Corruption wins not more than honesty.
Think not of office at expense of name
And future prospects. Be consistent ever.
................................................................
......................................Ah Kelee, Kelee,
Had I but served the people as they hoped,
I might to-day have felt I was a MAN.

Alas, alas! sad words, 'It might have been.'
And I a statesman, as I hoped, been seen.
Gone are the hopes St. John held out; I dare
Not seek for favor from the people there.
Soon, soon will end my short, erratic course,
And not be mine save torturing REMORSE!
(Exeunt, Dead March in the distance.)

The theme is picked up at the opening of scene 4:

Almost I do repent myself to-day,
Of having done this deed without a name;
Oh, conscience! conscience! torture me no more!

and is present in Georgee's last speech in the final scene:

but to die and go we know not where -
But stay, we know full well where we must go.
What would I give if innocence were mine -

Nevertheless, despite frequent outbursts about lost honour, Georgee is able to put his conscience in his pocket sufficiently to go on with expedient action, allowing himself to be persuaded by Kelee's voice of reason ('What you do has many a statesman done, scene 4) and by Tomjones' 'Stop hunkersliding. What is conscience? Fudge!' (scene 5). - T.R. Jones was President of the Executive Council. After having failed to be elected Mayor of Saint John he was appointed to a seat in the Legislative Council.

The chief adversary of conscience is, of course, Georgell, whose admission of his own hypocrisy is as blatant as that of any Vice figure: 'My deep hyprocisy has worn so long / That it is threadbare' (scene 4). Incorrigible to the end, he counsels Georgee: 'Be as I am, "case hardened", and you will / Laugh at the fears that now your mind distress' (scene 9).

Not surprisingly, Shakespeare is the playwright with whom the anonymous author is most acquainted - or at least the one whom he corrupts for his own purposes in his satire. Besides brief allusions to The Tempest ('Magic arts'), to Hamlet ('A hit most palpable'), to 3 Henry VI ('Tonight I sleep in York') and to Measure for Measure ('Ay but to die and go we know not where'), there are intimations of familiar set speeches. Scene eight contains three of these. The opening third parodies Jacques' 'Seven Ages of Man' speech from As You Like It, beginning with the familiar, 'All the world's a stage / And all the men and women merely players' - 'Of Muggins', interjects Georgell. Further interruptions and digressions impede Georgee's recitation before he concludes, 'Sans friends, sans votes, sans fame, sans everything'. The topic continues in a sixteen line distortion of Hamlet's 'To be or not to be' speech, which ponders

Whether 'twere better patiently to endure
The threats and insults of an outraged people
Or to take the plan of making resignation
And trust to public favor ...

and the scene concludes with one of the play's two imitations of Macbeth's witches:

Georgell: When shall we disbanded be?
Willis: When the House its work has done.
Ki: Long ere that our race is run.

The Shakespeare- inspired passages heap ridicule upon Kelee, who has never heard of Hamlet or Caliban, or of Byron's Don Juan, reinforcing the castigation of his social deprivation present in his encounter with Montgomeree in Scene two. William Kelly was a Roman Catholic who, unlike most of his co-religionists, approved of the school bill. 'Measure' portrays him as a dullard, lacking both education and social skills. The Shakespeare passages, then, assist the play's mock-heroic purpose.

The point of view expressed in 'Measure by Measure' is consistent with the tone and editorial position of The New Dominion and True Humorist. Even before the memorable assembly of the Legislature on 16 February 1871, the paper had not been partial to the government in office. On the 11th it mocked the forthcoming session in the language of show business:

Surely a great treat is in store for our friends 'up river', when the great exhibition opens. It will combine the circus, the menagerie, and the pantomime; and cannot fail to attract hundreds to the performances. There will be a change of programme every day, and the plays introduced will be selected from the legitimate Drama. This is necessary in a moral town like Fredericton, where neither gambling nor rum-drinking is sanctioned or practised; and, besides, it affords inducements to christians to attend with their wives and children. It has not yet transpired who will be the Clown - this will be known in time.

On the same day it made biting references to the anticipated introduction of the school bill and to the government's handling of the smallpox crisis.

The papers between 25 February and 8 April, the period in which 'Measure' was serialized, contained attacks on most of its dramatis personae as well as on their collective practices. These include attacks on the 'Iscariot Act', the 'double-shuffle game', the 'Government Game of Euchre', 'Trickster education', the 'King-bird' who aspired to be 'cock of the walk', Hatheway the '"right and left bower" of York County', and Willis, who aspired 'to become the greatest "toad in the puddle"'. Remaining consistent, The New Dominion and True Humorist printed, on 1 April, an ironic promotion for the forthcoming season of Willis and Hatheway's Dramatic Company - the opening of the Legislature on 5 April, the event which provided the topic for the last scene of 'Measure by Measure'. The first night was to open with a 'highly sensational pantomime of "THE CHAMPAGNE SUPPER, or the successful GAME OF EUCHRE"', Hatheway to impersonate 'Trumps', a part he had performed masterfully for 40 years in every section of the province. The second night would present the 'screeching farce' 'THE PROROGATION, or the FIZZLE IN THE HOUSE', to be followed by a 'powerful drama', 'The School Bill, or a New Way to Cod the People', which 'abounds in magnificent shift scenes, decorations, traps, costumes, and clowns, and may be styled the most popular production of the day'. The attitude which inspired the 'promotion' is clearly the same irony which underlies 'Measure by Measure'. ¹³

The New Dominion's two earlier political satires, 'Government in Session', and 'Northumbria', expose some of the same characters in other scandals. Superficially, 'Northumbria' appears similar to 'Measure by Measure'. It too is in iambic pentameter and begins with another variant of the opening from Richard III:

Now is the winter of my discontent
Made glorious summer by the Resignation,
I was afraid that he would not resign,
And all my plottings then would go for nothing.

References to Shakespeare, and intended parallels, are explicit, such as the connection Thomas Oiley makes between himself and Macbeth:

'Is this a dagger that I see before me?'
I feel just like Macbeth in tragic story.

'Northumbria''s satire of election practices is, however, less well constructed than 'Measure by Measure' and lacks its fierce irony.

The action of 'Northumbria' had only recently been played out before a scandalized but amused electorate when its first scene appeared in the New Dominion of 6 March 1869. The ironic tone of the paper's introduction refers to this:

A new play in five acts, one of the most celebrated dramas since the days of Shakespeare. It was recently played before a large and appreciative audience and from its serio-comical character, produced unbounded applause. The parts are sustained by a clique instead of a company, but this only adds to the comic proportions of the Play.

In 1868, Jacob Carvell Gough resigned from the New Brunswick Legislature to run for Parliament. Defeated, he then was returned to the Legislature by acclamation in the by-election when his opponent, Thomas F. Gillespie of Chatham, known in the play as Tom Oiley, was disqualified on a technicality. The scandal of the disqualification and the incompetence of Oiley's supporters (known in the play as Allan A. Dale and Richard the Last) form the subject matter of the play. The afterpiece, 'A Trip to Frederictonia and Back for $12', is based on Gillespie's journey to Fredericton with his supporters to petition the Legislature for what they believed was an injustice - an attempt, which was, of course, useless.

'Government in Session', like 'Measure by Measure', exemplifies a more biting wit than 'Northumbria'. Written in prose, 'Government in Session' is an exposé of corruption in the anti- confederate government of Albert J. Smith. The plot concerns the scandal of 'Crown land jobbing', which had been exposed by Timothy Anglin, editor of the Saint John Morning Freeman, though, 'If it had not been discovered', pleads Hathnoway (George L. Hatheway), 'would it have been a crime' (scene 3)? The piece, which outlines the government's misdeeds without subtlety, ends with a lengthy song, reminiscent of 'The Vicar of Bray' and fitting the music, satirizing Billy Needham (Billy Nerdy) and George Hathaway (George Hath-no-pay) who have just been defeated in by-elections.

The three political satires vary greatly in their sophistication. 'Government in Session' is very rough and crude, 'Northumbria' is gently amusing though lacking in power, while 'Measure by Measure' is a stronger work whose effectiveness derives from its techniques. The period to which they belong was rich in live theatre. J.W. Lanergan's Dramatic Lyceum had been providing summer seasons regularly in Saint John since 1857 and, from 1868, these had been augmented by the visits of travelling companies to provide year round entertainment. In 1872, the year after 'Measure by Measure''s publication, two new theatres - the Academy of Music and Bishop's Opera House - would open in response to public demand.

The particularized subject of the political satires had little in common with the repertoires of the theatres. More in keeping with that was the sensational, scandalous tale written by Saint John author Beatrice Jones. 'The League of the Sierra Madre', performed on the Lyceum stage on 10 August 1868, told of secret marriage and desertion, outlaw bands in the mountains of Mexico, chastity assailed, death and reform. Public misdemeanours, such as those satirized in 'Measure by Measure', 'Northumbria', and 'The Government in Session' could only be enacted on the larger stage of the political arena.

Notes

MEASURE BY MEASURE AND OTHER POLITICAL SATIRES FROM NEW BRUNSWICK

Mary Elizabeth Smith

1 J. R. HARPER, Historical Directory of New Brunswick Newspapers and Periodicals Fredericton: U.N.B., 1961, p 77. In its second week of publication the paper became The True Humorist, and from 1867, until it ceased early in 1878, it was The New Dominion and True Humorist
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2 The True Humorist 30 December 1865
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3 Saint John Regional Library, Manuscript Accession No 113
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4 The author of 'The Triumph of Intrigue' may be ROBERT GOWAN. See W.S. MACNUTT, New Brunswick: 1784-1867 Toronto: Macmillan, 1963, p 467
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5 Act I scene 1 Courier 23 February 1833
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6 Ibid
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7 The play is not extant. Advertisements in Hill's paper, The Loyalist, from 22 May 1845 until the end of the year, announced that the 'Tragi-Comedy' was published 'in a Pamphlet form' and could be purchased 'at the Book Stores in St. John and Fredericton' for 1S.3d
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8 Descriptions of the production are lengthy and highly entertaining. See Saint John Morning News 4 & 9 April 1845, Saint John Herald 4 & 11 April 1845, Fredericton Loyalist 10 April 1845
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9 The controversy surrounding the introduction of free and non-sectarian schools is discussed in KATHERINE MAcNAUGHTON, The Development of the Theory and Practice of Education in New Brunswick 1784-1900 Fredericton, 1947, in PETER M. TONER, 'The New Brunswick Separate Schools Issue 1864-1876', M.A. thesis, University of New Brunswick 1967, and in MICHAEL HATFIELD, 'La Guerre Scholaire: the Conflict Over the New Brunswick Common Schools Act, 1871-1876', M.A. thesis, Queen's University, 1972
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10 New Brunswick: Journal of House of Assembly 1871 p 13
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11 The Brayley House stood on Queen St in Fredericton. It was a hotel that tended to be favoured by members of the opposition
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12 Members of the Government tended to frequent the Barker House, a hotel that stood on Queen St only a few blocks away from its rival, the Brayley House
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13 A short dramatic sketch published in The New Dominion on 4 March 1871 and entitled 'The Fall of the KING-LIE DIE-NASTY! containing the DYING CONFESSIONS OF "THE UNITED WISDOM"', raised similar topics. It allowed 32 characters briefly to 'confess' either their own or someone else's villainy in language allusive to Shakespeare and Dryden. Stevenson exclaims,

'An office! an office! my honour for an office!' while Hatheway is 'a man so various that he seems to be not one, but all mankind's epitome'