ed lower, he went as a ram. The sayings of Mr.
Durance about his dear England: that 'her remainder of life is in the
activity of her diseases'--that 'she has so fed upon Pap of Compromise as
to be unable any longer to conceive a muscular resolution': that 'she is
animated only as the carcase to the blow-fly'; and so forth:--charged on
him during his wrestle with his problem. And the gentlemen had said, had
permitted himself to say, that our England's recent history was a
provincial apothecary's exhibition of the battle of bane and antidote.
Mr. Durance could hardly mean it. But how could one answer him when he
spoke of the torpor of the people, and of the succeeding Governments as a
change of lacqueys--or the purse-string's lacqueys? He said, that Old
England has taken to the arm-chair for good, and thinks it her whole
business to pronounce opinions and listen to herself; and that, in the
face of an armed Europe, this great nation is living on sufferance. Oh!

Skepsey had uttered the repudiating exclamation.

'Feel quite up to it?' he was asked by his neighbour.

The mover of armed hosts for the defence of the country sat in a
third-class carriage of the train, approaching the first of the stations
on the way to town. He was instantly up to the level of an external
world, and fell into give and take with a burly broad communicative man;
located in London, but born in the North, in view of Durham cathedral, as
he thanked his Lord; who was of the order of pork-butcher; which
succulent calling had carried him down to near upon the borders of Surrey
and Sussex, some miles beyond the new big house of a Mister whose name he
had forgotten, though he had heard it mentioned by an acquaintance
interested in the gentleman's doings. But his object was to have a look
at a rare breed of swine, worth the journey; that didn't run to fat so
much as to flavour, had longer legs, sharp snouts to plump their hams;
over from Spain, it seemed; and the gentleman owning them was for selling
them, finding them wild past correction. But the acquaintance mentioned,
who was down to visit t' other gentleman's big new edifice in workmen's
hands, had a mother, who had been cook to a family, and was now widow of
a cook's shop; ham, beef, and sausages, prime pies to order; and a good
specimen herself; and if ever her son saw her spirit at his bedside,
there wouldn't be room for much else in that chamber--supposing us to
keep our shapes. But he was the