Note 329 — No. XXXVI.[305]

i.e. Perhaps a member of the Whig Club—a society that has presumed to monopolize to itself a title to which it never had any claim, but from the character of those who have now withdrawn themselves from it. “Perhaps” signifies that even the Whig Club sometimes rejects a candidate whose PRINCIPLES (risum teneatis) it affects to disapprove. [Referring to the secession of the Duke of Portland and others from the Whig Club in consequence of their not approving of all the proceedings of Fox and his more violent adherents. Sheridan met with so much opposition to his entrance into the Whig Club, that he succeeded in getting admitted only by stratagem.—Ed.]