to marry jays ('Just so,'
screamed the jay); and magpies to marry magpies."

"And chaffinches to kiss chaffinches," added Tchink, determined not to
be left out.

"This custom," continued the owl, "has now existed so long, that upon
looking into the archives of my house, and turning over the dusty
records, not without inconvenience to myself, I can't discover one
single instance of a departure from it since history began. There is no
record, gentlemen, of any such event having taken place. I may say,
without fear of contradiction, that no precedent exists. We may,
therefore, regard it as a fixed principle of common law, from which no
departure can be legal, without the special and express sanction of all
the nation, or of its representatives assembled. We may even go further,
and hazard the opinion, not without some authority, that even with such
sanction, such departure from constitutional usage could not be
sustained were an appeal to be lodged.

"Even the high court of representatives of all the nation, assembled in
the fulness of their power, could not legalise what is in itself and of
its own nature illegal. Customs of this kind, which are founded upon the
innate sense and feeling of every individual, cannot, in short, be
abolished by Act of Parliament. Upon this all the authorities I have
consulted are perfectly agreed. What has grown up during the process of
so many generations, cannot be now put on one side. This, gentlemen, is
rather an abstruse part of the question, being one which recommends
itself for consideration to the purely legal intellect. It is a matter,
too, of high state policy which rises above the knowledge of the common
herd. We may take it for granted, and pass on from the general to the
special aspect of this most remarkable case.

"What do we see? We see a proposed alliance between an august magpie and
a beautiful jay. Now we know by experience that what the palace does one
day, the world at large will do to-morrow. It is the instinct of nature
to follow the example of those set so high above us. We may therefore
conclude, without fear of contradiction, that this alliance will be
followed by others equally opposed to tradition. We shall have hundreds
of other equally ill-assorted unions. If it could be confined to this
one instance, a dispensation might doubtless be arranged. I, for one,
should not oppose it. ('I hate you!' shouted the jay.) But no one can
for a moment shut his eye to what