"'Hurra! Messrs. Yallowboy and Cant-well! hurra, Mr. Yellow, Mr.
Yellow.'

"Mr. Yellowboy, who had not been able to come earlier, in consequence of
the morrow being publishing day with him, now rose. He was a tall, thin,
bony-looking person, who might very well have taken his name from his
complexion.

"'Mr. Chairman, gentlemen, and brothers--I rise with great and powerful
diffidence to speak, to express myself, and to utter my sentiments
before this most respectable, and, what is more, truly loyal
auditory--hem. In returning thanks, gentlemen, for the Castle Cumber
True Blue (cheers), I am sure I am not actuated by any motive but that
staunch and loyal one which stimulates us all--hem. The True Blue,
gentlemen, is conducted--has been conducted--and shall be conducted to
all eternity--should I continue to be so long at the head of it--so long
I say, gentlemen'--here the speaker's eye began to roll--and he slapped
the table with vehemence--'I shall, if at the head of it so long,
conduct it to all eternity upon the self-same, identical, underivating
principles that have identified me with it for the last six months.
What's Pruddestantism, gentlemen, without a bold, straightforward press
to take care of its pruvileges and interests? It's nothing, gentlemen.'

"'Undher God, sir, and with all piety and perseverance I deny--'

"'Silence, brother Bob, don't interrupt Mr. Yellowboy, he'll make
himself plain by and by.'

"'I deny--'

"'Silence--I say.'

"'Nothing, gentlemen--a candle that's of no use unless it's lit--and
the press is the match that lights it (hurra, cheers). But, as I said
in defending Pruddestantism, we advocate civil and religious liberty all
over the world--I say so boldly--for, gentlemen, whatever I say, I do
say boldly'--here he glanced at the Equivocal--'I am not the man to
present you with two faces--or I'm not the man rather to carry
two faces--and only show you one of them--I'm not the man to make
prutensions as a defender of civil and religious liberty, with a
Protestant face to the front of my head, and a Popish face in
my pocket--to be produced for the adversary of Popery and
idolatry--whenever I can conciliate a clique by doing so.' Here there
was a look of sarcastic defiance turned upon Cantwell--who, conscious of
his own integrity--merely returned it with a meek and benignant smile, a
la Solomon.

"'No, gentlemen, I am none of those things--but a bold, honest,
uncompermising Pruddest