ad Crasweller departed, and had the system then been stopped, should
I not have appeared a murderer even to myself? And what hope had
there been, what reasonable expectation, that the system should have
been allowed fair-play?

It must be understood that I, I myself, have never for a moment
swerved. But though I have been strong enough to originate the idea,
I have not been strong enough to bear the terrible harshness of the
opinions of those around me when I should have exercised against
those dear to me the mandates of the new law. If I could, in the
spirit, have leaped over a space of thirty years and been myself
deposited in due order, I could see that my memory would have
been embalmed with those who had done great things for their
fellow-citizens. Columbus, and Galileo, and Newton, and Harvey, and
Wilberforce, and Cobden, and that great Banting who has preserved us
all so completely from the horrors of obesity, would not have been
named with honour more resplendent than that paid to the name of
Neverbend. Such had been my ambition, such had been my hope. But it
is necessary that a whole age should be carried up to some proximity
to the reformer before there is a space sufficiently large for his
operations. Had the telegraph been invented in the days of ancient
Rome, would the Romans have accepted it, or have stoned Wheatstone?
So thinking, I resolved that I was before my age, and that I must pay
the allotted penalty.

On arriving at home at my own residence, I found that our _salon_ was
filled with a brilliant company. We did not usually use the room;
but on entering the house I heard the clatter of conversation, and
went in. There was Captain Battleax seated there, beautiful with a
cocked-hat, and an epaulet, and gold braid. He rose to meet me, and
I saw that he was a handsome tall man about forty, with a determined
face and a winning smile. "Mr President," said he, "I am in command
of her Majesty's gunboat, the John Bright, and I have come to pay my
respects to the ladies."

"I am sure the ladies have great pleasure in seeing you." I looked
round the room, and there, with other of our fair citizens, I saw
Eva. As I spoke I made him a gracious bow, and I think I showed
him by my mode of address that I did not bear any grudge as to my
individual self.

"I have come to your shores, Mr President, with the purpose of seeing
how things are progressing in this distant quarter of the world."

"Things were progres