of the chairmen. Other members
were catechized, and in justice to Messrs. Bascom and Botcher it must
be admitted that the assertions of these gentlemen were confirmed. It
appeared that the amount of thought which was being lavished upon these
measures was appalling.

By this time Mr. Crewe had made some new friends, as was inevitable when
such a man unbent. Three of these friends owned, by a singular
chance, weekly newspapers, and having conceived a liking as well as
an admiration for him, began to say pleasant things about him in their
columns--which Mr. Crewe (always thoughtful) sent to other friends of
his. These new and accidental newspaper friends declared weekly that
measures of paramount importance were slumbering in committees, and
cited the measures. Other friends of Mr. Crewe were so inspired by
affection and awe that they actually neglected their business and spent
whole days in the rural districts telling people what a fine man Mr.
Crewe was and circulating petitions for his bills; and incidentally
the committees of Mr. Butcher and Mr. Bascom were flooded with these
petitions, representing the spontaneous sentiment of an aggrieved
populace.

"Just then a scout came flying,
All wild with haste and fear
To arms! to arms! Sir Consul
Lars Porsena is here.
On the low hills to westward
The Consul fixed his eye,
And saw the swarthy storm of dust
Rise fast along the sky."

It will not do to push a comparison too far, and Mr. Hamilton Tooting,
of course, ought not to be made to act the part of Tarquin the Proud.
Like Tarquin, however, he had been deposed--one of those fatuous acts
which the wisest will commit. No more could the Honourable Hilary well
be likened to Pandora, for he only opened the box wide enough to allow
one mischievous sprite to take wings--one mischievous sprite that was
to prove a host. Talented and invaluable lieutenant that he was, Mr.
Tooting had become an exile, to explain to any audience who should make
it worth his while the mysterious acts by which the puppets on the stage
were moved, and who moved them; who, for instance, wrote the declamation
which his Excellency Asa Gray recited as his own. Mr. Tooting, as we
have seen, had a remarkable business head, and combined with it--as
Austen Vane remarked--the rare instinct of the Norway rat which goes
down to the sea in ships--when they are safe. Burrowing continually
amo