passed. There was, I suppose, in the estimation of Englishmen, time
enough to think about it. The idea was so strange to them that it
was considered impossible that we should carry it out. They heard of
the bill, no doubt; but I maintain that, as we had been allowed to
separate ourselves and stand alone, it was no more their concern than
if it had been done in Arizona or Idaho, or any of those Western
States of America which have lately formed themselves into a new
union. It was from them, no doubt, that we chiefly expected that
sympathy which, however, we did not receive. The world was clearly
not yet alive to the grand things in store for it. We received,
indeed, a violent remonstrance from the old-fashioned Government at
Washington; but in answer to that we stated that we were prepared
to stand and fall by the new system--that we expected glory rather
than ignominy, and to be followed by mankind rather than repudiated.
We had a lengthened correspondence also with New Zealand and with
Australia; but England at first did not believe us; and when she was
given to understand that we were in earnest, she brought to bear upon
us the one argument that could have force, and sent to our harbour
her 250-ton steam-swiveller. The 250-ton swiveller, no doubt, was
unanswerable--unless we were prepared to die for our system. I was
prepared, but I could not carry the people of my country with me.

I have now given the necessary prelude to the story which I have to
tell. I cannot but think that, in spite of the isolated manners of
Great Britain, readers in that country generally must have become
acquainted with the views of the Fixed-Periodists. It cannot but
be that a scheme with such power to change,--and, I may say, to
improve,--the manners and habits of mankind, should be known in a
country in which a portion of the inhabitants do, at any rate, read
and write. They boast, indeed, that not a man or a woman in the
British Islands is now ignorant of his letters; but I am informed
that the knowledge seldom approaches to any literary taste. It may be
that a portion of the masses should have been ignorant of what was
being done within the empire of the South Pacific. I have therefore
written this preliminary chapter to explain to them what was the
condition of Britannula in regard to the Fixed Period just twelve
months before England had taken possession of us, and once more
made us her own. Sir Ferdinando Brown now rules us, I must