maly."

"That the service could not permit. It would be as injurious to himself
as it would to others about him. At present, he has almost, indeed I
may say quite, an unlimited command of money."

"That's bad, very bad. I wonder he behaves so well as he does."

"And so do I: but he really is a very superior lad, with all his
peculiarities, and a general favourite with those whose opinions and
friendship are worth having."

"Well, don't curb him up too tight--for really he does not require it.
He goes very well in a snaffle."

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

"PHILOSOPHY MADE EASY" UPON AGRARIAN PRINCIPLES, THE SUBJECT OF SOME
UNEASINESS TO OUR HERO--THE FIRST APPEARANCE, BUT NOT THE LAST, OF AN
IMPORTANT PERSONAGE.

The conversation was here interrupted by a mail from England which they
had been expecting. Captain Wilson retired with his letters; the
Governor remained equally occupied; and our hero received the first
letter ever written to him by his father. It ran as follows:--

"MY DEAR SON:--

"I have many times taken up my pen with the intention of letting you
know how things went on in this country. But as I can perceive around
but one dark horizon of evil, I have as often laid it down again without
venturing to make you unhappy with such bad intelligence.

"The account of your death, and also of your unexpectedly being yet
spared to us, were duly received, and I trust, I mourned and rejoiced on
each occasion with all the moderation characteristic of a philosopher.
In the first instance I consoled myself with the reflection that the
world you had left was in a state of slavery and pressed down by the
iron arm of despotism, and that to die was gain, not only in all the
parson tells us, but also in our liberty; and, at the second
intelligence, I moderated my joy for nearly about the same reasons,
resolving, notwithstanding what Dr Middleton may say, to die as I have
lived, a true philosopher.

"The more I reflect the more am I convinced that there is nothing
required to make this world happy but equality, and the rights of man
being duly observed--in short, that everything and everybody should be
reduced to one level. Do we not observe that it is the law of nature--
do not brooks run into rivers--rivers into seas--mountains crumble down
upon the plains?--are not the seasons contented to equalise the parts of
the earth? Why does the sun run round the ecliptic, instead of the
equator, but to give an equ