reformer in office; you are afraid for your vested interests.

REV. DR. FOLLIOTT. Not I, indeed, sir; my vested interests are
very safe from all such reformers as the learned friend. I
vaticinate what will be the upshot of all his schemes of reform.
He will make a speech of seven hours' duration, and this will be
its quintessence: that, seeing the exceeding difficulty of putting
salt on the bird's tail, it will be expedient to consider the best
method of throwing dust in the bird's eyes. All the rest will be


[Greek text in verse]


as Aristophanes has it; and so I leave him, in Nephelococcygia.

Mr. Mac Quedy came up to the divine as Mr. Crotchet left him, and
said: "There is one piece of news which the old gentleman has not
told you. The great firm of Catchflat and Company, in which young
Crotchet is a partner, has stopped payment."

REV. DR. FOLLIOTT. Bless me! that accounts for the young
gentleman's melancholy. I thought they would overreach themselves
with their own tricks. The day of reckoning, Mr. Mac Quedy, is the
point which your paper-money science always leaves out of view.

MR. MAC QUEDY. I do not see, sir, that the failure of Catchflat
and Company has anything to do with my science.

REV. DR. FOLLIOTT. It has this to do with it, sir, that you would