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 from them; to support which, the figures are often put together. Nor must the Mutual Admiration Society be forgotten.

The writer's matured conviction is that we are rapidly drifting towards an unexampled national catastrophe, a conviction based upon independent examination of published facts and figures, undertaken without prepossession. The conclusions ultimately reached, and laid before Mr. Gladstone in a convenient, original form on November 24, 1880, had been submitted a few days after prorogation, viz., on August 15, 1877, to Lord Beaconsfield, then H.M. Principal Secretary of State.

What influence these representations exercised over the imagination and judgment of the Prime Minister can be gathered from the following extract from chapter i. of Endymion, published three years subsequently—

" Well," said his companion musingly, " it may be fancy, but I cannot resist the feeling that this country, and the world generally, are on the eve of a great change."&emsp;&emsp;

"I see no reason why there should be any great change; certainly not in this country," said Mr. Ferrars. " Here we have changed everything that was required."&emsp;&emsp;

"The whole affair rests on too contracted a basis," said his companion. " We are habituated to its exclusiveness, and, no doubt, custom in England is a power; but let some event suddenly occur which makes a nation feel or think, and the whole thing might vanish like a dream."

"What can happen? Such affairs as the Luddites do not occur twice in a century, and as for the Spafield riots, they are impossible now with Peel's new police. The country is employed and prosperous, and were it not so, the landed interest would always keep things straight."