ms as easily as exponential equations, why--then adieu
to the bickerings of party, the querulous complaints of the Opposition!
Nay, joy to the Ministry! There will be no Opposition! Our statesmen
will be able to guide the great ship of the State by means of charts
which know no error; and they will resemble an association of savants
met together to determine the exact moment of the transit of Venus, or
to examine the degree of density of a comet's tail.

This condition of Parliamentary procedure is much to be desired; you
have shown how such an ideal state of things may be obtained. In the
name of the Government I thank you for your endeavours on behalf of your
country's welfare, and look forward to a further development of your
admirably conceived system. As in the domain of ordinary science there
are complex questions which defy the acumen of the philosopher; so in
polemical science there may be questions which present the same
difficulties and complications. But as the first are daily yielding
before the persevering attacks of the mathematician, so I doubt not
polemical science will soon overcome the various problems which may
arise.

But it is mainly on my own account that I venture to address you. I
desire to consult you with regard to certain matters--political
complications--which have recently occupied the attention of Her
Majesty's Ministers. By the help of your new science, can you aid us
in our deliberations? Of course, I am writing to you in _strict
confidence_, and beg that you will keep this communication profoundly
secret. I fear that would be a hard task for many of your sex, who do
not possess your knowledge and powers of mind; but I have great
confidence in your discretion.

These are the problems which are presented to us for solution:

1. Some members of the Cabinet are secretly in favour of Protection, and
the country is rather stirred by the question. Can you, from your
knowledge of the contact of curves and nations, help us to determine
what course we ought to take with regard to Spain, for example? Are the
principles of Adam Smith mathematically correct?

2. I observe that England is represented mathematically by an ellipse.
Are we right in assuming that Ireland is a portion of that ellipse? Or,
on the other hand, in our chart of nations, must we describe that
troublesome country as a rotating parabola, or complex figure,
altogether outside our more favoured State?

3. Do you consider, fro