TIT FOR TAT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 19, 22 January 1870, Page 3

TIT FOR TAT.

. , 3 There is a story told of a former Minister of ours at Brussels — I don't see why I /.should not name him : Kir Kobert Adair ;i — which is worth reviving. Amongst the | names on liis visiting book, he one day \ chanced to see that of Joseph Hume, \ the well-known economical reformer, who, y passing through Belgium, had called at the legation, with a reasonably-grounded \ expectation of official attentions. Sir \ Robert's dinners had a wide reputation. 1 An admirable cook and an exquisite cellar had given the English legation a European fame; and it was said that Mr. Hume was one of those who are in no wise insensible to such excellencies. Indeed, a junior member of the legation had heard, and reported to his chief, that Joseph delayed bis departure to enable him to pronounce on the fare of the legation. Sir Robert, highly indignant at the paltry reductions so pertinaciously moved in official salaries, and belonging to that old Whig party whose creed was, that there was a class which should never be subject to vulgar discussion and popular opinion, was very adverse to any attention to the chief leader of these assailants. At last, however, he gave in, and sent Mr. Hume an invitation to dinner. Mr. Hume came, doubtless brimful of expectation as to the exquisite character of the banquet that awaited him. He had heard marvellous stories of the delicacies for which land and sea were ransacked, and of vintages which only royal cellars could rival. What was, then, his disgust to be served with a weak potage and a glass of third-rate sherry, followed by a leg of mutton and light Bordeaux, the whole closing with a chicken and some salad — Sir Robert apologising in all humility for the fare by saying, " You see, Sir, what these Radicals have brought us to with thpir reductions ! A little more of this, and we shall come to a prison dietary, with some pudding, perhaps, for a Sunday." — Blackwood.