s left, a sharp-nosed, light-haired man in
a brown surtout reaching nearly to his heels, who took a whiff at his
pipe, and an admiring glance at the red-faced man, alternately.

'Very extraordinary!' said the light-haired man after a pause of five
minutes. A murmur of assent ran through the company.

'Not at all extraordinary--not at all,' said the red-faced man, awakening
suddenly from his reverie, and turning upon the light-haired man, the
moment he had spoken.

'Why should it be extraordinary?--why is it extraordinary?--prove it to
be extraordinary!'

'Oh, if you come to that--' said the light-haired man, meekly.

'Come to that!' ejaculated the man with the red face; 'but we _must_ come
to that. We stand, in these times, upon a calm elevation of intellectual
attainment, and not in the dark recess of mental deprivation. Proof, is
what I require--proof, and not assertions, in these stirring times.
Every gen'lem'n that knows me, knows what was the nature and effect of my
observations, when it was in the contemplation of the Old-street Suburban
Representative Discovery Society, to recommend a candidate for that place
in Cornwall there--I forget the name of it. "Mr. Snobee," said Mr.
Wilson, "is a fit and proper person to represent the borough in
Parliament." "Prove it," says I. "He is a friend to Reform," says Mr.
Wilson. "Prove it," says I. "The abolitionist of the national debt, the
unflinching opponent of pensions, the uncompromising advocate of the
negro, the reducer of sinecures and the duration of Parliaments; the
extender of nothing but the suffrages of the people," says Mr. Wilson.
"Prove it," says I. "His acts prove it," says he. "Prove _them_," says
I.

'And he could not prove them,' said the red-faced man, looking round
triumphantly; 'and the borough didn't have him; and if you carried this
principle to the full extent, you'd have no debt, no pensions, no
sinecures, no negroes, no nothing. And then, standing upon an elevation
of intellectual attainment, and having reached the summit of popular
prosperity, you might bid defiance to the nations of the earth, and erect
yourselves in the proud confidence of wisdom and superiority. This is my
argument--this always has been my argument--and if I was a Member of the
House of Commons to-morrow, I'd make 'em shake in their shoes with it.
And the red-faced man, having struck the table very hard with his
clenched fist, to add weight to the declaration,