ng depositions were
at once carried out. "The House is aware, I believe," he said, "that
the first operation will soon be needed." I may as well state here
that this was repeated to Eva, and that she pretended to take huff at
such a question from her lover. It was most indecent, she said; and
she, after such words, must drop him for ever. It was not for some
months after that, that she allowed Jack's name to be mentioned
with her own; but I was aware that it was partly settled between
her and Jack and Mrs Neverbend. Grundle declared his intention of
proceeding against old Crasweller in reference to the breach of
contract, according to the laws of Britannula; but that Jack's party
disregarded altogether. In telling this, however, I am advancing a
little beyond the point in my story to which I have as yet carried my
reader.

Then there arose a debate upon the whole principle of the measure,
which was carried on with great warmth. I, as President, of course
took no part in it; but, in accordance with our constitution, I heard
it all from the chair which I usually occupied at the Speaker's right
hand. The arguments on which the greatest stress was laid tended to
show that the Fixed Period had been carried chiefly with a view to
relieving the miseries of the old. And it was conclusively shown
that, in a very great majority of cases, life beyond sixty-eight was
all vanity and vexation of spirit. That other argument as to the
costliness of old men to the state was for the present dropped. Had
you listened to young Grundle, insisting with all the vehemence
of youth on the absolute wretchedness to which the aged had been
condemned by the absence of any such law,--had you heard the miseries
of rheumatism, gout, stone, and general debility pictured in the
eloquent words of five-and-twenty,--you would have felt that all
who could lend themselves to perpetuate such a state of things must
be guilty of fiendish cruelty. He really rose to a great height
of parliamentary excellence, and altogether carried with him the
younger, and luckily the greater, part of the House. There was really
nothing to be said on the other side, except a repetition of the
prejudices of the Old World. But, alas! so strong are the weaknesses
of the world, that prejudice can always vanquish truth by the mere
strength of its battalions. Not till it had been proved and re-proved
ten times over, was it understood that the sun could not have stood
still upon Gide