ekeepers had embarked, the Vraibleusian journals, who thought
that the public had been satiated with congratulations on the Colonial
System, detected that the present colony was a job. Their reasoning was
so convincing, and their denunciations so impressive, that the Managers
got frightened, and cut off one of the Deputy-Storekeepers. The
President of Council now got more frightened than the Managers. He was
one of those men who think that the world can be saved by writing a
pamphlet. A pamphlet accordingly appeared upon the subject of the new
colony. The writer showed that the debateable land was the most valuable
acquisition ever attained by a nation famous for their acquisitions;
that there was a spring of water in the middle of the rock of a
remarkable freshness, and which was never dry except during the summer
and the earlier winter months; that all our outward-bound ships would
experience infinite benefit from this fresh water; that the scurvy would
therefore disappear from the service; and that the naval victories
which the Vraibleusians would gain in future wars would consequently be
occasioned by the present colony. No one could mistake the felicitous
reasoning of the author of 'The Present State of the Western Republics!'

About this time Popanilla fell ill. He lost his appetite and his
spirits, and his digestion was sadly disordered. His friends endeavoured
to console him by telling him that dyspepsia was the national disease
of Vraibleusia; that its connection with civil and religious liberty
was indissoluble; that every man, woman, and child above fifteen in the
island was a martyr to it; that it was occasioned by their rapid mode of
despatching their meals, which again was occasioned by the little time
which the most active nation in the world could afford to bestow upon
such a losing business as eating.

All this was no consolation to a man who had lost his appetite; and so
Popanilla sent for a gentleman who, he was told, was the most eminent
physician in the island. The most eminent physician, when he arrived,
would not listen to a single syllable that his patient wished to address
to him. He told Popanilla that his disorder was 'decidedly liver;' that
it was occasioned by his eating his meat before his bread instead of
after it, and drinking at the end of the first course instead of the
beginning of the second; that he had only to correct these ruinous
habits, and that he would then regain his tone.