was deliberating on impediments to the bringing in of fresh
and the taking away of foul water, and wondering if there ever would
be a body of their denomination which could do anything it wished to
do for the benefit of a mild, expectant, inactive, suffering public.
The comet pours in its fresh water on the instant, and the whole
difficulties of the case are at once resolved. A synod had been called
to consider some nice point, hardly palpable to common understandings,
but which everybody thought a very important point notwithstanding,
and three gentlemen speaking at once to contrary purposes were about
to be interrupted by a fourth of a different opinion still, when enter
comet--a real Moderator--and at one stroke decides what poor mankind
had been wrangling about for centuries, and what, to all appearance,
but for this 'redding straik,' they would have wrangled about for
centuries to come. Lord Augustus Anser had demanded satisfaction of
the Honourable Mr Pavo for an injurious remark, and they were
proceeding by railway to make a deadly end of it, when, lo! the comet
dashes in like an undesired train from a siding, and quashes one of
the prettiest quarrels which has happened for a twelvemonth. There was
an unpleasant dispute with America about a herring-barrel, and barrels
of a different kind were likely to be resorted to to settle it. The
Admiralty was all astir as to how many vessels it might be necessary
to set afloat for the business. Brother Jonathan was calculating what
could be made of the crisis in working out the election of a
president. The comet takes upon itself to set the whole naval force of
both countries afloat--the 'origo mali' too--and at the same time to
countermand the presidential election. So that matter passes. Another
president was on the point of electing himself emperor--a loving pair
was about to be wed--the Court of Chancery was just commencing a
career of reform--a new author was starting into fame with the most
brilliant novel of the season--when the comet thwarts every hope.
Lloyd's had never calculated on such an accident. On 'Change, if there
had been time for a moment's remark, it would have been regarded as a
most unheard-of thing. The life-assurance companies, having in their
tables made no allowance for such a contingency, would have been
ruined by so many policies 'emerging' (oh, word of mockery!) at once,
had it not been that there were no survivors to claim the various
amounts. D