freak of nature has been at work, and has tended
to produce a people as strong as it is beautiful, and as clever in
its wit as it is graceful in its actions." Here the speaker paused,
and the audience all clapped their hands and stamped their feet,
which seemed to me to be a very improper mode of testifying their
assent to their own praises. But Sir Ferdinando took it all in good
part, and went on with his speech.

"I have been sent here, ladies and gentlemen, on a peculiar
mission,--on a duty as to which, though I am desirous of explaining
it to all of you in every detail, I feel a difficulty of saying a
single word." "Fixed Period," was shouted from one of the balconies
in a voice which I recognised as that of Mr Tallowax. "My friend
in the gallery," continued Sir Ferdinando, "reminds me of the very
word for which I should in vain have cudgelled my brain. The Fixed
Period is the subject on which I am called upon to say to you a few
words;--the Fixed Period, and the man who has, I believe, been among
you the chief author of that system of living,--and if I may be
permitted to say so, of dying also." Here the orator allowed his
voice to fade away in a melancholy cadence, while he turned his face
towards me, and with a gentle motion laid his right hand upon my
shoulder. "Oh, my friends, it is, to say the least of it, a startling
project." "Uncommon, if it was your turn next," said Tallowax in the
gallery. "Yes, indeed," continued Sir Ferdinando, "if it were my
turn next! I must own, that though I should consider myself to be
affronted if I were told that I were faint-hearted,--though I should
know myself to be maligned if it were said of me that I have a
coward's fear of death,--still I should feel far from comfortable if
that age came upon me which this system has defined, and were I to
live in a country in which it has prevailed. Though I trust that I
may be able to meet death like a brave man when it may come, still I
should wish that it might come by God's hand, and not by the wisdom
of a man.

"I have nothing to say against the wisdom of that man," continued
he, turning to me again. "I know all the arguments with which he
has fortified himself. They have travelled even as far as my ears;
but I venture to use the experience which I have gathered in many
countries, and to tell him that in accordance with God's purposes the
world is not as yet ripe for his wisdom." I could not help thinking
as he spoke thus, that he