CHAPTER XLII

CONCLUSION 316

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE Sir Oran Haut-ton _Frontispiece_ Both Irishmen and clergymen 4 He was always found in the morning comfortably asleep 8 A journey to London 11 Fashionable arrivals 15 Old Harry had become, by long habit, a curious species of animated mirror 24 Sprang up, flung his night-gown one way, his night-cap another 27 ‘Possibly,’ thought Sir Telegraph, ‘possibly I may have seen an uglier fellow’ 32 Sir Oran took a flying leap through the window 36 Mr. Fax 57 Anthelia 72 Proceeded very deliberately to pull up a pine 78 Alighted on the doctor’s head as he was crossing the court 82 ‘My dear sir, only take the trouble of sitting a few hours in my shop’ 98 Sir Oran sat down in the artist’s seat 110 Mr. Feathernest 123 He managed so skilfully that his Lordship became himself the proposer of the scheme 138 She thought there was something peculiar in his look 141 He caught them both up, one under each arm 145 Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Mr. Hippy 158 ‘We shall always be deeply attentive to your interests’ 172 ‘Hail, plural unit!’ 176 Began to lay about him with great vigour and effect 179 Perched on the summit of the rock 183 ‘My father,’ said Mr. Forester, ‘began what I merely perpetuate’ 203 The company was sipping, not without many wry faces, their anti-saccharine tea 213 Mr. Fax was of opinion that he was smitten 221 Mr. Mystic observed that they must go farther 236 Sir Oran Haut-ton ascending the stairs with the great rain-water tub 240 Mr. Forester made inquiries of him 246 Sir Oran, throwing himself into a chair, began to shed tears in great abundance 253 A great press of business to dispose of 257 ‘Do you know, that in all likelihood, in the course of six years, you will have as many children?’ 263 Sir Bonus Mac Scrip retreated through the breach, and concealed himself under the dining-table 279 She immediately ran through the shrubbery 304 He flattered himself that Anthelia would at length come to a determination 308 Gazing on the changeful aspects of the wintry sea 311 Preparing to administer natural justice by throwing him out at the window 318 We shall leave them to run _ad libitum_ 320 ‘He would confess all’ 322

MELINCOURT

OR

SIR ORAN HAUT-TON

_VOCEM COMOEDIA TOLLIT_[1]

PREFACE TO THE EDITION PUBLISHED IN 1856[2]

‘Melincourt’ was first published thirty-nine years ago. Many changes have since occurred, social, mechanical, and political. The boroughs of Onevote and Threevotes have been extinguished: but there remain boroughs of Fewvotes, in which Sir Oran Haut-ton might still find a free and enlightened constituency. Beards disfigure the face, and tobacco poisons the air, in a degree not then imagined. A boy, with a cigar in his mouth, was a phenomenon yet unborn. Multitudinous bubbles have been blown and have burst: sometimes prostrating dupes and impostors together; sometimes leaving a colossal jobber upright in his triumphal chariot, which has crushed as many victims as the car of Juggernaut. Political mountebanks have founded profitable investments on public gullibility. British colonists have been compelled to emancipate their slaves; and foreign slave labour, under the pretext of free trade, has been brought to bear against them by the friends of liberty. The Court is more moral: therefore, the public is more moral; more decorous, at least in external semblance, wherever the homage, which Hypocrisy pays to Virtue, can yield any profit to the professor: but always ready for the same reaction, with which the profligacy of the Restoration rolled, like a spring-tide, over the Puritanism of the Commonwealth. The progress of intellect, with all deference to those who believe in it, is not quite so obvious as the progress of mechanics. The ‘reading public’ has increased its capacity of swallow, in a proportion far exceeding that of its digestion. Thirty-nine years ago, steamboats were just coming into action, and the railway locomotive was not even thought of. Now everybody goes everywhere: going for the sake of going, and rejoicing in the rapidity with which they accomplish nothing. _On va, mais on ne voyage pas._ Strenuous idleness drives us on the wings of steam in boats and trains, seeking the art of enjoying life, which, after all, is in the regulation of the mind, and not in the whisking about of the body.[3] Of the disputants whose opinions and public characters (for I never trespassed on private life) were shadowed in some of the persons of the story, almost all have passed from the diurnal scene. Many of the questions, discussed in the dialogues, have more of general than of temporary application, and have still their advocates on both sides: and new questions have arisen, which furnish abundant argument for similar conversations, and of which I may yet, perhaps, avail myself on some future occasion.

THE AUTHOR OF ‘HEADLONG HALL.’

_March 1856._

[Illustration: _Both Irishmen and clergymen._]