ic meeting was held, and the most
renowned men of the day--the Bishop of Oxford and Mr. Gladstone--lent to
the meeting not merely the attraction of their presence, but the charm of
their oratorical powers. The result is a very small collection, and a
talk of sending out six missionaries to christianize Africa. When
societies are formed there is no end to the absurdities they are guilty
of. Just think of the men of science at Aberdeen, all rushing over hill
and dale to Balmoral, where they were permitted, not to converse with
majesty (that were too great an act of condescension), but to have lunch
in an apartment of the royal residence. Then, again, what murmurs were
there at Bradford, because, at the close of the meeting, the younger
members of the Social Reform Congress were not permitted to dance the
polka. If old Columbus were alive now a new world would never have been
discovered. We should have had a limited liability company established
for the purpose. A board of lawyers, and merchants, and M.P.'s, as
directors, would have been formed. Some good-natured newspaper editors
would have inserted some ingenious puffs,--the shares would have gone up
in the market,--the directors would have sold out at a very fair rate of
profit. Columbus would have made one or two unsuccessful voyages--the
shares would have gone down--the company would have been wound up--and no
western continent, with its vast resources, would ever have been heard
of. I like the old plan best; I like to see a man. If I go into the
House of Commons I hear of men, somewhat too much talk of men is there;
on one side of the house Pitt is quoted, on another Fox, or Peel, or
Canning. If Pitt, and Fox, and Canning, and Peel had done so depend upon
it we should never have heard their names. It is a poor sign when our
statesmen get into this habit; it is a mutual confession of inability to
act according to the wants and necessities of the age. They quote great
men to hide their littleness. They imagine that by using the words of
great statesmen they may become such, or, at any rate, get the public to
note them for such themselves. They use the names of Pitt and Fox as
corks, by means of which they may keep afloat. Well, I must fain do the
same; while I rail against custom, I must e'en follow her.

"He seems to me," said old Montaigne, "to have had a right and true
apprehension of the power of custom, who first invented the story of a
country-wom