I should at the moment be
carried on board,--which might no doubt then have been done by the
soldiers,--I had said that if a certain time were allowed me I would
again be found in the same place. If I were simply there, and were
surrounded by a crowd of Britannulans ready to fight for me, I should
hardly have kept my promise. But a stronger reason than this perhaps
actuated me. It would be better for me for a while to be in England
than in Britannula. Here in Britannula I should be the ex-President
of an abolished republic, and as such subject to the notice of all
men; whereas in England I should be nobody, and should escape the
constant mortification of seeing Sir Ferdinando Brown. And then
in England I could do more for the Fixed Period than at home in
Britannula. Here the battle was over, and I had been beaten. I began
to perceive that the place was too small for making the primary
efforts in so great a cause. The very facility which had existed for
the passing of the law through the Assembly had made it impossible
for us to carry out the law; and therefore, with the sense of
failure strong upon me, I should be better elsewhere than at home.
And the desire of publishing a book in which I should declare
my theory,--this very book which I have so nearly brought to a
close,--made me desire to go. What could I do by publishing anything
in Britannula? And though the manuscript might have been sent home,
who would see it through the press with any chance of success? Now
I have my hopes, which I own seem high, and I shall be able to watch
from day to day the way in which my arguments in favour of the Fixed
Period are received by the British public. Therefore it was that I
rejected Jack's kind offer. "No, my boy," said I, after a pause, "I
do not know but that on the whole I shall prefer to go."

"Of course if you wish it."

"I shall be taken there at the expense of the British public, which
is in itself a triumph, and shall, I presume, be sent back in the
same way. If not, I shall have a grievance in their parsimony, which
in itself will be a comfort to me; and I am sure that I shall be
treated well on board. Sir Ferdinando with his eloquence will not be
there, and the officers are, all of them, good fellows. I have made
up my mind, and I will go. The next that you will hear of your father
will be the publication of a little book that I shall write on the
journey, advocating the Fixed Period. The matter has never been
ex