Volume 1859
Georges Dodds'
The Ape-Man: his Kith and Kin
A collection of texts which prepared the advent of Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Presents
http://www.erbzine.com/mag18/simiocracy.htm

Author(s)

Link to Tarzan of the Apes

Advanced apes take over the government of England in this political satire.

Edition(s) used

• Author of 'Post Mortem' [Brookfield, Arthur Montagu]. 1884. Simiocracy. A Fragment of Future History. London: Blackwood.

Modifications to the text

• [sic] indicates typos in original.
• Footnotes given as endnotes.

The struggle which they did anticipate came in due course. Contrary to the general anticipation, it was brief and bloodless; but the victory of the revolutionary party was none the less decisive, and the defeat of the reactionary forces overwhelming, and in the end irremediable. The story, which still possesses a quaint sort of attraction, may be told in a few words.

Soon after the executive power had passed into the hands of what was known as the Birmingham faction, the Premier found it desirable to conciliate some of the more moderate members of the Liberal party, whose commercial fears he had in some degree alarmed by peremptorily insisting on the admission of two of his brothers to the Cabinet. With this object in view, he conferred the post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster upon a distinguished statesman who had been his colleague for a short time in the preceding Ministry. This "nobleman" was in many respects excellently suited to adorn any public station. His administrative talents had been tried, and favourably recognised, in various fields of political enterprise; and the amiable versatility of his character had already extorted the wonder of more than one political party, while his modest and pacific views on the subject of foreign engagements made him an especially suitable successor to the late Chancellor of the Duchy, who had been a member of the Society of Friends.

What follows forms one of the most curious pages to be found in modern history. The ceremonious usage of the times required that one of the Cabinet Ministers should always be in residence at the Palace of the Sovereign; but since the accession of the Birmingham faction to power, the duty thus entailed had been usually delegated to subordinate officials, and this had occasioned much vigorous criticism from the Senate, and even -- so it was alleged -- some gentle remonstrance from the "illustrious personage" whom the matter chiefly concerned. The Premier now good-naturedly and wisely determined that the old practice should be revived in its full integrity -- so far, that is, as he and his colleagues could conveniently permit. The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs was at first requested to attend the Palace; but he was just then much occupied in building a new mansion in Chelsea, (1) and he bluntly refused. The newly appointed Chancellor of the Duchy was then asked to undertake the business, and he without hesitation consented. The new arrangement was for some time the cause of universal satisfaction. The Premier was highly pleased; for, by admitting one of the hereditary peers to the Cabinet, and at the same time keeping him out of its actual counsels, he had at once calmed the fears of his more moderate supporters, and satisfied the notions of Radical expediency which he and his more advanced associates entertained. The Tories, who still formed a considerable party outside the walls of Parliament, were elated at seeing the visible head of the State once more recognised by some person of greater importance than a Minister's private secretary. And it was soon made evident that inside the Palace the Premier's statesmanlike and courteous behaviour had been keenly appreciated. He was at once offered a peerage; and since the dignity no longer entailed an absence from the House of Commons, he readily accepted the time-honoured distinction. His brothers were at the same time invited to become baronets; but they pointed out, with some asperity, that they should be false to their principles if they for a moment recognised the right of an eldest son to be more highly exalted than the other members of his family. Despite, however, the rugged independence of these two sturdy democrats, there is little doubt that the new arrangement gave very general satisfaction. The Chancellor of the Duchy was directed to remain in residence at the Palace so long as he might think fit; and as he was much given to good living, it is probable that he might have prolonged his stay for an indefinite time, had not the aspect of affairs become suddenly completely changed.

A Cabinet Council was being held, and the subject under immediate discussion was the proposal to devote a portion of the Scottish Church surplus to the Relief of the persecuted Russian Jews. The Premier was stating in a luminous manner his own views on this subject, when he was interrupted by the arrival of a messenger from Windsor. This individual was at first desired to wait; but with a curiously strained notion of his importance, he declared that his business would admit of no delay. He then stated plainly that the regal crown, which, since the conversion of the Tower into a Hall of Science, had been courteously entrusted to the Sovereign's care, had disappeared, and was nowhere to be found. This news at first seemed to excite nothing but merriment. The Vice-President of the Council offered to advertise the loss in his own journal, 'The National Reformer'; while another Minister wished to know who would offer a reward for the recovery of the missing property. The Lord Chancellor, however, promised to investigate the matter, as soon as he should be at leisure; and the messenger was at length dismissed with a verbal acknowledgment of the news which he had brought. All this time the Foreign Secretary had maintained an absolute silence. But now, as the discussion of the Scottish Church surplus question was about to be resumed, he rose, and observed in tones full of significance, that the apparently trivial loss of which they had just heard, might in fact prove to be an immense gain. For a moment, his colleagues seemed to listen with expressions of amused perplexity. The Foreign Secretary was known to all of them as a man of deep and strong sagacity; but they also knew that which had been for years a matter of public notoriety -- namely, that he suffered from occasional attacks of mental derangement, originally induced by over-application when studying for the youthful distinction of the Newcastle Scholarship. It soon became evident, however, that the modern Robespierre, as he loved to be called, was enjoying a lucid interval which boded no good to those who had incurred his resentment. He sternly repeated the ominous words which he had uttered on first rising; and he then proceeded to explain their precise import. "You will acknowledge, I believe," said he, "that the Sovereign is now no more than the symbol of supreme authority -- the authority which we ourselves really exercise. Upon what does the Sovereign's claim to this purely honorary distinction rest? On the possession, surely, of another symbol, the crown, If, then, the antiquated bauble which our grandfathers have taught us to call by that name has been lost or mislaid, it appears to me that the Sovereign has no longer any legal right to the enjoyment of any greater privileges than those of a private citizen! If it has been found convenient, in deference to the prejudices of an effete aristocracy, to continue for the last twenty years a set of forms and usages which, according to all logic and consistency, we should long ago have swept away, is it not evident that the present opportunity furnishes us with an irresistible justification for vindicating the true rights of the people upon that very basis to which we have so long deferred-the basis of prescriptive form and custom?"  (2)

The Vice-President of the Council then rose, and supported the sense of the foregoing remarks with characteristic vehemence. "The time had come," he exclaimed, "to tear away the last rag from the banner of privilege and corruption. He himself had succeeded, after a long and weary struggle against prejudice and misrepresentation, in securing the triumph of materialism, in asserting and maintaining the now indefeasible doctrine that man was the sole author of his own existence, the sole controller of his own destiny and his own passions, the only arbiter of human events and human fortune. But if he could in his old age assist in the destruction of the last link which enchained his fellow-creatures in a slavery scarcely less degrading than that from which they had already escaped, he should die serenely happy in the conviction that he had not lived in vain."

When these two speeches had been delivered, it at once became evident that they had excited very strong sympathy in the breasts of those who sat listening. The Premier was the first to compliment the Foreign Secretary upon his having detected a perfectly legal and constitutional means by which to escape from a state of affairs which had certainly become ludicrous in the extreme. He then proposed that the whole matter should be referred to the Central Authority at Birmingham, with a request that that body would forthwith issue a mandate as to the course which the Government should follow. The Lord Chancellor moved, by way of amendment, that before asking for a mandate from the Caucus, steps should be taken to verify the report which had reached them. This proposition was, however, overruled; and there is now very little doubt that the loss of the crown, the arrival of the messenger, and the whole of the subsequent transactions, were all part of a cleverly preconcerted scheme, for which the Premier himself must be mainly held responsible. (3) It soon became evident that the English people were in earnest. (4) Petitions without number began to pour in, praying that the happy occasion now presented for the formal establishment of a Commonwealth might be forthwith seized. Deputations from Northampton, from Stoke, from London, from Carlisle, from Birmingham itself, waited upon the Premier, and earnestly implored him to justify his own reputation for consistency, by at once declaring in favour of the cause which it was well known he had always in his heart advocated. (5) For some weeks his attitude was watched with breathless impatience. It was presently rumoured that he had received the long-expected mandate, but hesitated to give it implicit obedience. We may conjecture, that whereas in his boyhood, and in the subsequent stages of municipal preferment through which he had passed, he had been an uncompromising opponent of the Monarchy, he had, since his elevation to the Ministry, become seduced by the attractions of the Court, which still enjoyed considerable influence in the social world, and perhaps to a certain qualified extent in the world of politics also. For some time he continued to maintain perfect silence as to his intentions. But a paragraph presently appeared in 'Truth,' hinting that the Premier felt embarrassed by the formal affirmation of allegiance, which, in compliance with some musty tradition, he had been prevailed upon to make; and this plausible but wholly unfounded statement promptly elicited an official rebuke in one of the Ministerial organs, which moreover stated that the Premier would never admit that his duty to the people was second to his duty to anyone individual: that, on the contrary, he had ever regarded the masses as the sovereign power, in theory as well as in fact; that his hesitation did not arise from any maudlin superstition whatever; but that, in fact, he had not yet received the mandate, and could not therefore make any present announcement as to the course which he might have to pursue in regard to it. (6) Every eye now became fixed upon Birmingham. But the natural course of events was unexpectedly precipitated by a complication which had long been foreseen, but never adequately provided for. It will be readily understood that the ancient order of things, founded upon religion and supposed expediency had not been swept away without occasioning considerable heart-burning, and even some appreciable hardships and suffering, to various vested interests -- in fact, to a very large number of persons. The Church, the Aristocracy, and the Army, were all in a state of sullen dissatisfaction; but the Army seems to have been, upon the whole, the most discontented, the most turbulent, and, so far as mere physical strength went, the most formidable. Now the armed forces of the country had been abolished in a perfectly regular and formal manner. An Act of Parliament, duly passed through the House of Commons and the Senate, had declared them to be unnecessary and highly dangerous; and no one dared to question the right of the people to spend their money in whatever manner they pleased. We must confess, however, that this salutary reform, while it had undoubtedly benefited the community at large, had created one distinct evil, in throwing out of employment large masses of ignorant and unfeeling men, whose bigoted feelings of resentment made them a standing menace to the peace of the country. The disbanded soldiers had already been guilty of acts of pillage and rapine; and the Premier had somewhat dubiously characterised these outrages as at once laudable and intolerable. Of late, however, the disaffected military had done little more than to congregate in the neighbourhood of Windsor, where they filled the taverns and drank the Sovereign's health, not, it was whispered, without the secret connivance and approval of many of the Court officials, and a few of the less respectable inhabitants of the town. To these soldiers, then, who were constantly casting about for some pretext for a general riot, the news of the disappearance of the crown, and the subsequent proceedings of the Ministry, was exceedingly welcome. They immediately assembled in numbers variously computed at 8000, 10,000, and 12,000; and having chosen a certain Colonel Cockle for their leader, marched in military array to the Palace, where they broached sundry casks of ale, burnt sundry effigies of the Ministers, and delivered sundry reactionary and foolish speeches. The burden of their cry was that the royal dignity was threatened, and the personal safety of the Sovereign endangered, by the recent proceedings of the Cabinet. They then clamoured for money, for arms, for leaders -- for everything, in short, of which they had been deprived; and they declared that unless their demands were entertained, they would speedily enforce them.

These proceedings occasioned such serious alarm in the public mind that the executive would certainly have been justified in formally protesting against them -- or, in short, having recourse to the most stringent remedial measures. But the courage and foresight of the Birmingham officials were equal to the emergency. The mandate declaring the throne void, and ordering the establishment of a Commonwealth, had for some days been prepared, and was ready for issue on the very night which the military rioters chose for their demonstration. But in view of the peculiar delicacy of the situation a council was hastily summoned; the official proclamation of the mandate was ordered to be delayed for twenty-four hours; and secret instructions were sent to the Chancellor of the Duchy -- who, in spite of much unmerited obloquy, still remained at his post -- to arrange for the Sovereign's instant departure to Liverpool. These orders were immediately carried into effect. The last of the English monarchs arrived in due course at Liverpool, and there embarked, without molestation, or indeed public recognition of any kind, on the United States frigate "Alabama." The first of American sovereigns landed ten days afterwards in New York, amidst general acclamation. The effect of this grand stroke of policy surpassed even the sanguine hopes of those by whom it had been initiated. The Press was jubilant; the Court party, the military league, the peers and landjobbers, were completely demoralised; and the people preserved an attitude of grateful and. dignified calm; (7) and the ministers of the various denominations went in state to Westminster Abbey, and there returned thanks for the great victory which had been so miraculously yet peacefully gained.

Such is the brief but curious history of a revolution as complete as that of 1688, yet infinitely less bloody, and infinitely more complete and satisfactory in its results. We shall next pass on to a review of the events which immediately succeeded the overthrow of the English monarchy, and gradually paved the way, through democracy, to the eventual establishment of our present beneficent system of government.

It is impossible, however, to doubt that the Premier's new position was surrounded with difficulties of no ordinary magnitude; and, even supposing that the completeness of his success did not in some measure astound him and paralyse his habitual energy, it may still be well surmised that when at length called upon to put his long-cherished theories into immediate practice, he was considerably perplexed in mind. In his own words, he found that the dreams of a steady, pushing boy, and the practical policy of a responsible Minister, were very different matters. (8) The first important question with which he and his colleagues were called upon to deal, was the long-mooted extension of the franchise. Ever since the passing of the first Reform Bill, it had become more and more obvious that the eventual concession of the suffrage to every human being who could read and write must be a question of time rather than expediency. The various stages by which electoral privileges had been conceded to every free man and free woman in the land, had been safely passed with results which were in the main highly gratifying to the friends of Democratic Progress. Nevertheless the last Reform Bill had produced some consequences which were both unexpected and disappointing -- as, notably, the enfranchisement of the women, which had led to various most serious abuses, amongst which we need only cite the costly and cumbrous establishment of parochial boards of divorce; and hence it was generally felt that more drastic and comprehensive measures were still urgently needed. (9) The first step which public opinion and public expediency seemed to demand, was the extension of the franchise to the youth of Britain, who now formed, in point of intellectual attainments, by far the most respectable aggregate in the community.

The Ministers of the Commonwealth lost no time in formulating and announcing their scheme, which was one in perfect harmony with the enlightened spirit of the age, and with the prevalent sentiments of the people. (10) The measure was introduced in the House of Commons by the Vice-President of the Council, whose venerable but still stalwart form seemed to dilate with pride as he found himself for at least the second time the champion of a fresh advance in the beneficent paths of rational progress. Some who watched the scene when the Reform Bill was being introduced in the Commons have recorded how, as the Vice-President's sonorous tones filled the auditory, as his supple hands once or twice snatched at an orange with which he occasionally slaked his rhetorical thirst, he struck with awe not a few of the listeners, who dimly fancied they saw in him the visibly embodied presentiment of that master-race whose unsuspected day of triumph was silently but swiftly approaching. (11)

The speech with which he introduced the Government measure was in substance studiously moderate. He began by recapitulating the various stages of enfranchisement through which the nation had passed. He showed how each succeeding enlargement of the franchise had been but the natural sequence of one extension, the logical prelude to another. He referred to the old struggles between religious bigotry and universal toleration, and showed how the triumph of the latter had inevitably led to the subsequent victory of exclusive secularism. He dwelt with honest warmth upon the share which he had himself taken in these battles of bygone times; and he reminded the House, with bitterness, "that he had once been despised, scoffed at, and even subjected to the grossest personal indignity, solely because he, and he alone, had foreseen in those dark days that progress must succeed progress, as surely as one day must succeed another." He then passed on to the details of his proposals. He pointed out, with some pride, that the class which it was now proposed to enfranchise represented only a fraction of that number of persons whom the act would have affected some twenty years before; and he laid particular stress on the provision that in localities such as Rugby, Winchester, Harrow, and Eton, a "holiday schedule," as it was termed, would be enforced -- that, in other words, the youths who periodically congregated at these and similar seats of learning, would not be entitled to vote as inhabitants of the towns where their schools were situated, but only as inhabitants of the districts which were their homes or normal places of abode. The age of those who were to be given the suffrage was not at first fixed. But in the course of the debate the proposal to fix the age at fourteen was negatived; and in the end the age of fifteen was decided upon, though the Government carried an amendment by which any youth who, not having reached the qualifying age, had nevertheless been promoted into a standard where the average age was fifteen and a half, should be admitted to all the privileges which, but for such promotion, he would have forfeited

In contemplating at this distance of time the spirit of caution which thus narrowed the enjoyment of a public right to so limited a sphere, it is impossible not to perceive that the Government policy in the matter was dictated by motives of prudence rather than of justice. There is, indeed, very little doubt that the Premier would have cheerfully refrained from establishing any such invidious limitation as the Fifteen clause, had he not been afraid of unsettling the Public Mind. (12)

Besides the clause just referred to, others were inserted, by which intimidation was jealously and studiously guarded against; and a special enactment was introduced, prohibiting "any person or persons, society, club, association, or corporation" -- with the sole exception of the Birmingham Directorate -- "from coercing, bribing, threatening, or in any manner whatsoever persuading or enticing" the enfranchised youth, "under penalty of imprisonment for two years, with or without hard labour, but without the option of a fine.

It must be confessed that the Bill, of which we have thus given but a brief outline, was excessively moderate, and conceived in a spirit which undoubtedly reflected more honour on the prudence than on the enterprise of the framers of the measure. Such as it was, however, it was quickly carried. Urgency was voted; the clôture was applied pro formâ; the Senate duly registered its assent, and the mandate was at once issued. The measure had thus become the law of the land, and a dissolution ensued, with results which we shall describe and examine in another chapter.

Nowhere have these eternal truths been more forcibly and abundantly demonstrated than in Great Britain -- a nation which has loyally and unselfishly made her land the battle-field of the world in the perpetual contest between bigotry and enlightenment; and never has faith in the glorious principle of progress been more suddenly and forcibly stimulated than when England first gave political power to her youth!

The first effort of the new enfranchisement was curious, and to a certain degree unexpected. The youths of Britain constituted a class, and, like the members of any other class, had certain grievances and aspirations peculiar to themselves. The grievance upon which they seem now to have laid most stress was that of compulsory education; and their aspirations did not at first extend beyond the desire to obtain such a measure of power as should enable them to shake off the burden which mainly affected their social independence and happiness. The youths of both sexes soon formed a League, and established a central office in one of the suburbs of London. The subscriptions which speedily poured in, were at first in such small sums as to raise only a general smile; but soon afterwards, when the second balance-sheet of the association had been published, the public perceived that the organisers of the movement were being largely assisted by the purses of wealthy individuals whose direct interest in the objects of the League must have naturally ceased. It was whispered, indeed, that the bulk of the funds came from America, to which country most of the old "farmers" had repaired, in order to better those fortunes which the rigour and inclemency of the English climate had so extensively reduced. But no matter whence the members of the League derived their supplies, those supplies continued to flow in; and after the association had been established for just three years, its organisation was so complete, its ramifications were so extended, and the zeal and enterprise of its promoters so unremitting, that the Ministers of the Commonwealth were forced to acknowledge that, in conceding to the youth of England recognition as a class in the body politic, they had inevitably paved the way towards recognising also the justice of whatever demands for self-government the new class might make, so long always as those demands were accompanied by acts of sufficient importance to demonstrate the strength and intensity of the movement. (14)

The first public admission of this change of attitude on the part of the Minister was not made until some months after the Premier's sudden announcement of a general election. The course of this electoral campaign was distinguished by the commission of sundry acts of violence, perpetrated in almost every case by duly accredited members of the League. Now the victims of these outrages were nearly all of them schoolmasters, Government inspectors, and others whose avowed interest in the maintenance of law and order was at once seen to be purely selfish and personal, and whose professed attachment to the newly instituted form of Government was, moreover, open to very grave suspicion. (15) It was determined, and wisely and boldly determined, that they should be left to shift for themselves; that, in the old form of words which the Chancellor of the Duchy had many years before made famous, they must "stew in their own juice."  (16)The Reformers were in the meantime appeased with certain portions of the salaries which had formerly been handed in bulk to their oppressors; and in order that the conciliatory intentions of the Government might be the more manifest, the task of reducing these salaries, and of administering the balance which thus accrued, was intrusted [sic] to some of the most prominent members of the League.

But this hollow comedy did not last for long; nor was it the intention of the Ministry that it should. The elections resulted in the return of a numerous and powerful body of youths, all pledged to the accomplishment of that one engrossing end which the League still kept steadfastly in view -- namely, the repeal of the Compulsory Education Act. Negotiations were now opened between the Ministers of the Commonwealth and the disaffected youth, but with very unsatisfactory results; and at length the members of the League took the decisive step of burning or wrecking, on the same night, upwards of fifteen hundred Board Schools in various towns and rural districts. This bold but salutary stroke, although it involved immense losses of private as well as public property, at once put an end to all narrow and spurious opposition, and enabled the Government to make a peaceful and timely concession to the cause of progress and universal emancipation. "Your patience and your courage," said the Premier in a public address which he delivered soon after the occurrence which we have just recorded, "should be examples not only to the youths who follow in your footsteps, and to the immediately future members of this Commonwealth, but also to that great race, whatever it may be, which has in its hands the ultimate control of the world's destinies in ages yet unborn."  (17) The obnoxious Education Act was formally repealed, and the arbitrary and feudal calling of the pedagogue banished to the limbo of obsolete privileges.

The League bore the honours of this victory with remarkable and even astonishing moderation. Not only did the enfranchised youths abstain from all vain exultation, but they signalised the triumph of their cause by an act of unparalleled self-denial. Their representatives in Parliament resigned their seats in a body; and, followed by their supporters, withdrew from the commotions of public life, and retired to their homes, there to pass the residue of their young days in a dignified ease, which befitted their tastes and years far better than did the feverish bustles and contentions of a political career. This line of conduct was at once honourable to those by whom it was followed, and gratifying in the main to the friends of progress. Among the latter, however, were some who did not scruple to express their gratitude at having been saved from some vague danger, which they naively described as "the too logical result of the views they had grown accustomed to hold"; and a few professed Radicals even ventured to revive discussions on the exploded and retrograde doctrine of Finality, which course of conduct was eagerly applauded by the few remaining adherents of the old Tory party, who, as usual declared, with their customary pathetic fervour, that the Commonwealth was leading the people to Anarchy and Destruction.

But the great heart of the Liberal party was not to be terrified by the disaffection of a weak and inconsiderable minority within its ranks, nor deterred by the frantic menaces and ill-timed execrations of a discredited faction without, from the steady pursuit of those wise and beneficent aims to which consistency plainly pointed. (18) The reply of the popular leaders, when they were unsparingly taunted with not having any policy, was at once manly and ingenuous, and has not yet been forgotten. "Our policy," said they, "is Progress; and if we do seem to halt for a few moments in our course, be assured that it is only in order to take breath, so that we may presently proceed on our journey with increased vigour, and by leaps and bounds."

But it is necessary that we should describe a spectacle which was at this time attracting crowds of every age and every degree of culture. The old fondness which in England once prevailed for barbarous and brutal exhibitions, had for several years past given place to a taste for more refined displays, which should appeal to the intellect rather than to the passions; and this wholesome change in the popular sentiment had been of late greatly stimulated by the extraordinary merit of some of the entertainments with which the public of London had been provided. Of these, the foremost, both in excellence and favour, was the Westminster exhibition of a tribe of Oran Otani, as they were termed, who had been induced to leave their home in Borneo and visit this country, "not," it was alleged, "to gratify the morbid curiosity of idle sight-seers; still less with any hope of pecuniary gain to themselves or anyone else; but solely in order to enlighten the candid and liberal minds of those who seek after the truth, and to re-establish between two great races those intimate and cordial relations which bigotry and superstition have unfortunately, for some time past, interrupted." Now it would certainly appear, at first sight, that in claiming for these interesting, intelligent, yet presumably half-savage beings, a status entirely different to any that their numerous predecessors had ever in modern times been suffered to enjoy, the controllers of the enterprise had undertaken a bold and even desperate task. Upon further reflection, however, it will be readily granted that this attempt to overcome a prejudice, which was already, in truth, nearly exploded, was not only creditable to the good sense of its originators, but also in perfect harmony with the progressive spirit of the age. The people, moreover, had been gradually induced to perceive that the opinions so stoutly maintained by some of the most thoughtful men of the day as to the original connection between the human and the Simian races, were not to be disposed of by mere contradiction or intolerant ridicule. The people had not yet forgotten the teachings of Darwin; and they may have remembered that he was now resting, in peace and dignity, close to that building which was now the temporary home of those to whom he had first extended the hand of fellowship. They may have recollected also that he was followed to his grave, not only by philosophers who had derided his views, but by eminent divines from whom his famous theory had met with the most furious reprobation. Again, had not other alien races been once despised -- nay, even slaughtered? And now, were not some of the brightest ornaments of the English Bar these same abhorred "blackamoors"? And did not millions of English as well as Dutch men, women, and children bear allegiance to a dynasty of negroes whom we had once contemptuously handed over into slavery? The time had surely passed for permitting considerations of race, creed, or colour to act as artificial obstacles to any recognition which true merit might seek to claim!

Reflections such as these were doubtless prevalent in the public mind when the little band of Oran Otani first began to attract general attention. And, upon the whole, we feel justified in saying that the people of England were not only eager to give their visitors a cordial and respectful reception, but also perfectly willing to listen to the proposals which they brought with them, and to give to those proposals -- however novel they might be -- the largest and most generous consideration possible. (20) To this friendly attitude on the part of the British public, however, one important stipulation was, as it were, attached. The Bornean delegates would have to prove that they were in earnest. (21) If, after setting forth that their mission was purely disinterested and philanthropic, they should lay themselves open to the charge of having concealed other less worthy intentions, then it would behove the people of this country to stamp such conduct with the whole weight of the national censure. This feeling of reserve was perfectly intelligible. The English people could not forget how, only some fifty years before, they had been misled and confounded by certain representatives of the Irish race, who, under merely perfunctory pressure, had shrunk from persevering in their plans by those methods which they had been plainly promised would ultimately be allowed to succeed. Now the former "Home-Rulers" and the present Simian delegates had much in common. Both were warm-hearted, impulsive, and fond of contention, and both were labouring under somewhat similar disadvantages. But they differed in at least one essential particular. The Irish had asked to be released from every tie which bound them to the English nation; and the request was made in such a half-hearted manner as to evoke an opposition which it took several years to overcome. (22) The demand which the Simian delegates sought to enforce, however, was one which at once appealed to the English people's hearts. "They asked, to be permitted to fraternise with the whole human family, and especially with the English race; to enjoy with the English nation the advantages of civilisation; to share with the English people the blessings of freedom and equality; and to bear with them those trials and vicissitudes which they had hitherto been compelled to bear alone. (23) It was not likely that the people of a great and free Commonwealth would long resist such an appeal as this. But nevertheless, the populace for some time seemed slow to recognise the earnestness and good faith of the delegates; and although crowds flocked every day to their morning and evening receptions, those crowd appeared to be attracted far more by the pleasure they anticipated from the exhibition, than by the interest they felt in the movement of which the Oran Otani were the professed pioneers. This was still in a large measure the case, when the Premier, accompanied by the Vice-President of the Council, and the Attorney-General, in their search of relaxation visited the National Hall of Varieties; and the Ministers were surprised, and even shocked, to perceive that apathy with which the social and political aspects of the spectacle seemed to be regarded by the multitude of holiday sight-seers. But before proceeding any further, we shall endeavour to picture a reception at the Hall of Varieties, and to give some description of the personal appearance and characteristics of the Oran Otani.

The other male delegate was Pongat Won. He had only lately attained maturity, but was nevertheless precocious both in intellect and physical power. His demeanour was excessively gay and diverting; and, attired in a rich but very tasteful military undress, he seemed bent on winning the affection and goodwill of all with whom he came into contact.

The three female delegates were Jocki, Orani Jocka, and Piccanina Wou. Of these, the one whose name we have placed first was by far the most remarkable, both for personal charms and intellectual accomplishment. Jocki was then in her thirteenth year; and not only was it certain that she had been skilfully educated according to a standard hitherto supposed to be out of the reach of the Simian race, but a Bornean legend declared that she had in her infancy been abducted from a French traveller of the name of Michéle [sic], and was consequently entitled to be classed among the human species. Against the truth of this view, however, several important arguments were adduced, and notably two -- viz., that Jocki did not possess the gift of articulate speech, and that the formation of the thumbs and digits of her feet plainly proclaimed her Simian extraction. These representations seem to have been accepted as incontrovertible; but it would appear that the British people were at first ready to set aside the two questions of the original and the future connection between the two great races, and were only eager to show their admiration for a fascinating and talented being, as she was, no matter what she had been, or what she might eventually become.(26)

There can be very little doubt that Jocki was by no means displeased to find herself the object of general homage and flattery amongst the strangers whose goodwill she had from the first designed to conciliate; but undoubtedly the gratification which she so naturally experienced arose from the prospect thus opened to her of succeeding in a great mission, and never, as some base voices had ungenerously alleged, from any unworthy sense of female triumph. In truth, she regarded the success of the exhibition of which she formed a most important unit, as only the means to a pure and lofty end -- the social emancipation of the whole Simian race.

We shall shortly have to say more as to this gifted and fascinating being, and the extraordinary influence which she exercised upon the public mind, then slowly awaking from the stupor of whole generations of sleep. For the present, two other members of the mission remain to be briefly described. Orani Jocka was Orong's favourite wife. Her age at the time with which we are dealing has not been positively ascertained, but it is supposed that she was the oldest of all the delegates, and her age probably exceeded that of Orong by about six years. Her figure was infirm and decrepit; her hair almost entirely grey and the only clothing which she affected was a single coarse blanket, which contrasted very forcibly with the gay and elaborate attire of Jocki. But the deep lines in Orani Jooka's face denoted much experience, much anxious thought, and many cares and reflections; and we can well understand, that although in bodily frame she had pleased the Simian climacteric, her mental powers were still at their zenith, and more than sufficiently vigorous to enable her to discharge the combined duties of a priestess and a physician. She seemed to be averse to much intercourse, and exceedingly sensitive to the cold. She generally sat at a little distance behind her husband's chair, and was assiduously attended by Piccanina Wou -- the sister of Pongat -- a pretty little creature, then only in her infancy.

From the description which we have thus given, and by our manner of giving it, it will at once be seen that the people of this country were face to face with a phenomenon for which previous history furnished no precise parallel. (27) The age which had delighted in "Chinese giants" and "Polish dwarfs," in "fat ladies" and "midgets," in "twoheaded nightingales" and "Siamese twins," had now given place to a generation which sought for recreative nutriment of a more sterling kind. This demand, like all similar demands, had evoked a corresponding supply, and it became necessary for the enlightened English people to show the sincerity of their conversion by stamping the product of their enlightenment with approval. It behoved them, in other words, to accept the full consequences of that change of attitude which they had gradually, deliberately, and wisely assumed, They had asked for novelty, novelty had been granted them, and they must be prepared to accept novel changes, even if those changes affected their social system and their national polity, in an unexpected manner.

Such were the reflections of every thinking Englishman who considered in its proper light the true significance of the Oran Otani incident. (28) It might mean little, and it might mean much. Events might prove that the Simian mission was nothing more than a gigantic species of advertisement, a mere consequence of the changed conditions of commercial enterprise; and, on the other hand, it might well be that England was on the verge of a new departure which would bear fruit in nothing less than the complete homogeneity of two mighty races. In either case, it was the duty of every intelligent lover of Progress to assume a posture of benevolent vigilance, of wary openness to conviction, so that when the time came for pronouncing a final opinion, it should not be in the power of malice itself to say that a great nation had been hurried by circumstances into taking a course opposed either to prudence or to consistency.

All this was just and reasonable; and it soon became apparent that the new Bill would encounter very little serious opposition. The Premier, however, perceived that its success would gain from public opinion but an infinitesimal instalment of those larger concessions for which he was really seeking; and indeed he seems to have felt uncertain whether the principle he sought to establish in his Game Act was sufficiently important to be counted as a link in the chain which he was forging. But he resolved to persevere; and he solaced himself with the reflection that one of the greatest of Liberal statesmen -- the grandest of the grand old school -- had often found his account in feigning anxiety over measures which possessed no actual consequence, except that they served to pass away the time and distract public attention.

We cannot refrain from expressing our deep admiration for the Premier's conduct at this period. He had to contend not only with the ordinary obstacles of ignorance and prejudice, which he was accustomed to surmount, but also with an entirely new phase of bigotry -- a fierce spirit of political satiety, which led men to say that they would offer an uncompromising resistance to nearly any proposals which he might initiate, merely because it seemed, forsooth, that the truly eternal principle of Progress had come into collision with the exploded doctrine of Finality! Well might the Premier exclaim, in a moment of passionate despondency, "I have no hope for my fellow-countrymen. None, unless my colleagues and I can educate them to a due sense of their responsibilities at this crisis."  (32)

Fortunate was it for this country, fortunate was it for the world at large, that, at such a supreme juncture, the practical control of affairs was in the hands of one man who was not to be diverted from his master-purpose even by dangers the greatness of which he himself perceived! And happy was he to have in his counsels loyal and devoted men who were prepared to follow him wherever it might be his wise pleasure to go, all "without fear or favour, or any hope of reward."  (33)

Now the motives which actuated the Premier's colleagues at this time have been variously explained; but we are content to assign to them one, and one only. They may have been chagrined by the prospect of having to retire into private life with their most cherished hopes thwarted, their fondest wishes for the good of their fellow creatures withered in decay; they may have preferred to dream of a new and great future which should permanently secure them the enjoyment of wealth and affluence. But their chief, and indeed their sole reason for clinging to their leader at this momentous crisis in the history of their country, was that in him they saw the visible embodiment of Expediency, which was the grand motive-power of the party to which they were proud to belong, of the nation which gloried in hailing them as her sons.

The attitude which the Premier now observed towards his followers was that of a dignified, an almost paternal, reserve. "For the people at large," he once told some of his more intimate supporters, "our policy is still Progress, pure and simple. For you I have a latent policy, which I shall unfold at the proper time. Let us then, for the present, concentrate our energies upon two or three simple questions of social and domestic reform, by which the public mind may be prepared for those subsequent changes which I myself clearly foresee are inevitable."  (34) No further confidence than this was required to ensure a ready and enthusiastic response from the Premier's colleagues; and, so far as we can determine by direct information, no further confidence was granted. We may, however, very reasonably conjecture that the Premier had already imparted a hint as to his secret plans to the Vice-President of the Council, by whom his "latent policy" would have been no doubt highly commended, and warmly yet discreetly supported. (35)

The new Bill which dealt with the game laws, speedily evoked some very hearty and genuine expressions of approval from the constituencies. (36) No less than 40,000 petitions were presented in its favour; and the moral encouragement thus afforded to the Ministers enabled them to make the measure law in a space of time which would have excited the envy and amazement of former parliamentary generations. England now saw, with pleased astonishment, the assertion of a new and important principle, by which some of the most interesting and industrious creatures in the universe were in future to be recognised no longer as senseless and helpless subjects for persecution at the hands of brutal and thoughtless men, but as beings inwardly gifted with degrees of intelligence and power as diversified as the beautiful furs and plumage by which they were externally adorned.

The Premier was so elated with the success which had thus attended the first move towards the accomplishment of his latent policy, that he proceeded at once, and without hesitation, to take a second step, of graver importance and of more immediate consequence than the first. By the Sojourners' Act, which he now presented to Parliament, it was shortly and simply proposed to extend the franchise "to all Travellers and Sojourners who might be in Great Britain at the time of a general election." The Premier introduced the measure in a speech which was chiefly remarkable for a studied moderation, coupled with an almost careless brevity; but it was soon evident that the House considered itself taken by surprise, and entitled to discuss the Bill in a more ample fashion than that which the great democrat seemed, by his tactics, disposed to favour. Much speculation was rife in the lobbies as to the reasons which had led to the sudden introduction of an apparently important measure of electoral reform, which had not been even distantly foreshadowed in the Caucasian speech, and had not, so far as anyone could recall, been ever previously contemplated by the Birmingham authorities, the County Boards, the Land Commissioners, or, in fact, by any of the purely Liberal bodies which existed in different parts of the country. But soon a rumour was circulated to the effect that the Ministers had been compelled to formulate the Sojourners' Act by the increasing embarrassment of their position with regard to Liverpool. This constituency, with a stupid perversity which excited universal irritation and contempt, had now, for an uninterrupted period of twenty-two years, returned three Tory members to the House of Commons, where the total number of Tories was at this time only sixteen! It was suggested that the enfranchisement of a very large number of aliens might be expected to remedy this state of affairs. For although most of the foreign visitors at Liverpool came from America, a country which had of late years embraced monarchical institutions, it was thought that the very fact of their having deserted their native land argued that they were dissatisfied with the recent development of their home policy; and moreover, it was well known that the Americans, as a people, had always advocated for Great Britain that cause, whatever it might be, which most favoured the free importation of wheat, beef, machinery, and other Transatlantic commodities, to her shores.

Now, whether the true explanation of the Ministerial policy with regard to the Sojourners' Act lay in the position the Ministerial party occupied with regard to Liverpool, or whether the real reason was a different one which was still locked in the Premier's breast, suffice it to say, that the former solution was the one which the Ministers themselves -- though only by oblique hints, and certain indications of the head  (37) -- chose to encourage, with the result that it was soon very generally accepted by the House and the people at large. It then became evident that the only serious opposition the new measure was likely to meet with would be at the hands of the Tories, of whom we shall now proceed to give some brief account, in order that the tactics which they observed with relation to the Sojourners' Act may be more clearly comprehended and more justly censured.

If we pause for a moment to realise the plain and indisputable fact that Continuity is one of Nature's own laws, we must perforce come to the conclusion, that a number of persons banded together for the sole purpose of constantly resisting all progress whatsoever, must be regarded not only as destitute of all the nobler human passions, but as devoid even of that primitive kind of intelligence to which we give the name of Natural Instinct. But the history of the world has repeatedly demonstrated the dangerous futility of confounding the moral worth of any hostile force with its physical capacity for doing mischief. We may leave the moral worth of the Tories to be judged, by simply recalling the fact that "Passive Obedience," and "Divine Right," "Protection," "Empire," "Property," and "Religion," had been their most cherished doctrines, until they were completely conquered upon each of those questions, nearly in the order in which we have given them. But if we examine the physical capacity of the Tories for doing mischief, we find that the world's progress -- and notably the progress of England -- was from time to time most grievously impeded by the vigour with which these enemies of the human race rallied to their unhallowed standards, in their desperate and illogical efforts to avert the inevitable. The passionate ardour with which they contended for "Passive Obedience" and the "Divine Right of kings," not only undid all the work which Cromwell had accomplished in the seventeenth century, but threw England back into the arms of monarchical slavery for a period of nearly two and a half centuries. The zeal with which the Tories fought for "Protection," though it providentially caused an irreparable division in their own forces, enabled them to maintain Great Britain, for several years, in a position of most invidious prosperity; to retard the much-needed extinction of the farmers for a period of fifty years; and to delay the beneficent advance of the Commercial Democracy for a length of time which greatly impeded the rapid acquisition of those colossal fortunes which laid the foundation of the American throne. The clamour which the Tories raised for "Empire" not only prevented the French from moulding the nations of continental Europe into one homogeneous whole, but caused a considerable delay in the due amalgamation of Turkey and India with the mighty land of the Muscovites. We may well despise the passion for "Empire" which distinguished the Tory party for at least a century; but the results of that fatal ardour we cannot affect to disregard, when we remember that the wars to which they directly led, immersed this country in a debt of over £1,400,000,000, and caused thousands of delicately nurtured Scottish ladies and gentlemen to shelter themselves from the rigour of the northern climate in wretched hovels containing little more accommodation than that which was afforded by a single room! The cry of the Tories for "Property" was the main cause of all those troubles into which the innocent Irish people were ruthlessly driven; and there can be little doubt that if the Party of Progress had not been for several years coerced and intimidated into a course of slavish concession to the demands of a race of coroneted ghouls, who neither toiled nor span, the State of Erin would never have sought, and would never have been granted, the shelter of an alien flag. As for "Religion," who can question the lamentable truth, that the hold which that illiberal system still retained on the minds of many intelligent creatures, would have been long ago relaxed, but for the exertions of these faithful Tories, who, with an audacious enthusiasm worthy of a better cause, entangled even their political foes in the proselyting [sic] meshes of their net? True it was, and is, that "Religion" and "Passive Obedience," to a certain extent mean the same thing. Now the Tories have always contended that the "Divine Right" of their kings, is the proper symbol of the supreme right of the King of all kings; and in so doing they have placed their opponents in the dilemma of being plainly inconsistent. Neither the Puritans of the seventeenth century, nor the Whigs and Liberals of the eighteenth and nin[e]teenth centuries, nor even the Simiocrats of the present day, have ever been induced unanimously to perceive and admit that the deliberate recognition of a spiritual monarchy is wholly incompatible with the ultimate repudiation of all notions of earthly monarchy. When the Tory appealed to his New Testament for the sanction contained in the words, "Fear God, and honour the king," the distressed Puritan would reply with a quotation from the Old Testament, and by it seek to prove that to desire a king at all was a crime in the eight of Heaven. When the Tory cited the passage which enjoins the "giving unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's," the puzzled Whig would shake his empty skull, and answer that the meaning of the words should not be accepted too literally. And in the present day, when the occasional fanatic is brought face to face with the mighty opposition of science, he does not hesitate to advance his two favourite arguments of the "first cause" and the "small still voice" within him.

Surely, then, we must admit that the capacity of the Tories for doing mischief -- the effects of which, in at least one important respect, we have felt down to the present time -- has always been wholly out of proportion to that moral worth which we have not stooped to discuss. Seeing, however, that the policy of the Tories has nearly always been one of resistance rather than aggression -- and that there has always been in the world a great scarcity of leaders duly gifted with that quality of patient vigilance which is so highly essential to the success of a defensive policy, -- it has very happily followed that the Tories have often been compelled to remain for long periods in a state of sullen and sluggish inactivity, until the arrival of some duly qualified leader upon the scene has recalled them to a mischievous alertness, in much the same manner that hunger compels the sloth to quit his hold upon the bough that has fed him, and seek by laborious climbing, a fresh station, where he may once more batten in peace. Sometimes the advent of the Tory general has been so long delayed, that the garrisons which he has been destined to relieve have been reduced to the very verge of capitulation and extinction. But alas! his coming, though it has often been retarded, has never yet been looked for absolutely in vain; and the existence of this fearful and mysterious law has been illustrated in quite recent times. The Tories had not long bemoaned the death of William Pitt -- a spendthrift prodigal whose name our grandfathers could never mention without a shudder, -- when the hopes of the party, became enthusiastically fixed upon Sir Robert Peel. This Minister was the first conspicuous Tory who perceived that an apparent adherence to the policy of Progress and Reform might be made to contribute to the ultimate success of social retrogression, and the consolidation of every sort of political abuse. Earnestly believing that the surest way of eventually abolishing the Habeas Corpus Act, and the right of trial by jury, was to enact laws which should make the existence of those privileges appear ludicrous, and, moreover, dangerous to the public safety, he commenced, in 1827, the task of systematically relaxing the stringency of the criminal code. The first effect of this crafty piece of policy did not justify the expectations of the English Machiavelli. Executions became less frequent, but the number of crimes did not substantially increase. Peel, nevertheless, did not scruple to feign the extremity of alarm on behalf of the community for whose safety, as Secretary of State for the Home Department, he considered himself responsible. Then, without a blow, and almost without a murmur, the metropolis of Great Britain was suddenly filled with a disciplined army of spies, who perfectly understood that their surest road to promotion and emolument lay in a slavish obedience to the behests of the imperious Tory. Peel was assisted in the accomplishment of his tortuous policy by the Duke of Wellington, at that time Premier; a gloomy and ambitious soldier who had become dangerously elated by his victories over the French in Spain and Belgium, and the applause which those successes had obtained for him at home. (39) It is most probable, however, that the actual designs of Sir Robert Peel, his colleague and afterwards his chief, were never made known to Wellington, whose warlike instincts rendered him incapable of conducting any of the more delicate operations of political and diplomatic intrigue; and as Peel did not choose to confide his real intentions to anyone, he was forced to carry out his scheme of doing good that evil might result, without any really cordial help from any one, and with no other force than that of his own powerful and original will, which was sufficiently strong to extort a mechanical obedience from his followers for several years, until in 1846, when, having vainly demanded a full exposition of his policy, they deserted him. Peel himself died a few years later. The designs which he had harboured for the destruction of English liberty, and the substitution of arbitrary power in its place, were buried with him; and it is only just to admit that he left behind him the memory of a great, a highly gifted, and most enlightened statesman, anxious to preserve the old landmarks of the Constitution, yet zealous for the public good, and eager himself to direct the accomplishment of those reforms which he knew to be inevitable, yet dreaded to see carried out under the auspices of his opponents, whom he regarded as enemies to the national cause.

With the death of Peel, the Tories were reduced to their old periodical strait of being without a leader; and they had the additional mortification of seeing a man whom nature seemed to have marked with all the evil badges by which they were wont to recognise their destined commander, co-operating with the enemy's forces. (40) They were compelled then to place themselves under the nominal guidance of a statesman of only the second rank, and to continue in that situation, until, by that never-failing law to which we have already adverted, their torpid energies and fainting hearts were again restored by the appearance of a brilliant and capable adviser, who was in many respects exactly suited to cope with the difficulties of the hour.

We must digress a little further in order to describe this weird and unique figure in political history. We shall then be able to show more clearly, and more fully, the position which the parliamentary Tories occupied when they made their last obstinate stand to resist the passing of that great measure which was to prove the inception of Simiocracy.

It was the favourite boast of Disraeli that he had "educated his party"; and on the whole we believe that he was justified in making that boast. We question, however, whether, during the period of instruction, he was not simultaneously engaged in teaching himself; and whether -- in the case to which his boast bore special reference -- he did not make his party the corpus vile of a highly dangerous experiment, the success of which considerably surpassed any expectations which he may have previously formed. To return to the ordinary language of fact, the chief lesson which the Tories learnt from their new leader was this -- that an active policy had become vitally necessary, and that the old plan of simply resisting, protesting, and then yielding, could no longer succeed. The Tory party had hitherto existed for the main purpose of preserving the privileges of the Sovereign, the Church, and the Aristocracy. But these privileges had meanwhile been extended to a very large body of the people; Disraeli insisted that this circumstance must be no longer ignored; and we cannot doubt that, but for his counsel, the virtual extinction of the Tories would have been accomplished more than half a century ago. But it is not our intention to go back into matters of history any further than is necessary for our immediate purpose. In many emergencies, upon several questions, and in an infinite number of ways, the brilliant Tory leader proved the value of his views as to Tory policy; and during his lifetime he led his followers to victories of which, in previous times, under other generalship, they would have scarcely dared to dream.

At his death he bequeathed to them little more than his memory and his example. The professional maxims of government, which he had successfully inculcated, were now public property; but the secret rules which had guided him in the application of those maxims to the ever-changing conditions of political warfare, were not transferable, and had perished with him. For some time the country heard wails and lamentations in the Tory camp; and particular attention was attracted by the cries which proceeded from a certain quarter where the "mantle of Elijah" was alleged to have fallen. That mantle had indeed descended upon more than one pair of strong shoulders, and had moreover enveloped in its ample folds the entire figure of a young and talented statesman, who was at this time struggling to gain the sole and undisputed possession of the coveted garment. To him success did at last come; or rather he at length succeeded in emerging from his entanglement, clad in a serviceable cape which he had fashioned out of the materials of his former leader's shroud. He was greatly favoured by circumstances. For the wholesome legislation which deprived him of a pocket constituency, at the same time drove his most potent rival to America to seek a fortune, and so left him to face but one competitor, whose health had become so undermined by the constant strain of a position which he had never heartily liked, that he was glad to withdraw from the bustle of public life, and to leave Elisha, as the younger statesman was now called, to the thankless, difficult, and almost hopeless task of inspiriting the shattered battalions of the Tories for the renewal of their Quixotic strife.

From the leadership of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, (41) to that of Elisha, the leap seemed at first sight prodigious; and that troublesome class of men which devotes all its collective intelligence to the institution of comparisons between the ways of the present and of the past, found congenial and abundant occupation in pointing out the swift and terrible decadence which had befallen, not only the Tory party, but our whole parliamentary system. It is now, however, very generally admitted, that if the Tories had not been so slow in giving their allegiance to the only man who was capable of leading them, they might have postponed, for a considerable time, some of that legislation which was most distasteful to their sentiments. But the interregnum which ensued upon the collapse of the Tory duumvirate, extended over a period which was marked by at least two events disastrous to the Conservative cause; and the establishment of a Commonwealth, the enfranchisement of the Youth, and several other measures of democratic legislation, were carried by the Party of Progress in the face of only the faintest opposition from the ordinary source. The Tories were terribly weak in numbers, and nothing could counterbalance that disparity except some bold and original line of conduct, initiated, fostered, and controlled by one man, who could rely upon implicit obedience from his followers. At length, as we have shown, such a man arose; and the first battle for which Elisha marshalled his scanty forces was that which arose upon the famous Sojourners' Act -- a measure, quietly and even secretly conceived, and introduced without the smallest unnecessary ostentation, (42) yet destined to be one of the most important which had ever been enrolled on the Statute-book of the British Parliament.

When the debate on the second reading had fairly commenced, it became abundantly evident that the House had no intention of seriously considering the grand argument to which the unfortunate Tories clung with the tenacity of despair. "Their apprehensions," the Attorney-General remarked, "were so fantastic, so wholly, manifestly, and incontrovertibly absurd and chimerical, that he would not insult the intelligence of the House and of the country by stooping to give them more than a moment's examination. He would, however, say this much, -- that even supposing those apprehensions to be logically well founded -- even assuming that the responsible Ministers of the Commonwealth did contemplate the extension of certain human privileges and human rights to the Simian delegates who were at present the guests of the English nation -- he did not envy the condition of mind which could see in such a circumstance any just pretence for obstructing the business of the House, and seeking to cast discredit upon an Administration which had been launched into power by the almost unanimous will of the people."  (45) As he uttered these words, the attention of the House began to be distracted by an event then taking place in one of the galleries overhead; and the cheers which greeted the concluding phrase of his speech, were almost drowned in the laughter occasioned by the arrival of Pongat Wou in the Strangers' Gallery. It was afterwards ascertained, almost beyond dispute, that his introduction to the House at this particular moment, was a tactical stroke, connived at, if not positively contrived, by no less a person than the Tory leader, who fancied by this means to advance a visible and irrefutable argument in favour of the views which he professed to hold. But if this was the case, the result of the manœuvre did not at all justify his expectations. The humour of the situation was irresistible; the House was just in the mood for a joke; and when one of the Tories directed the Speaker's attention to the presence of "a strange beast in one of the galleries," he was curtly informed that the expression he had used was unparliamentary. Nevertheless, it was clearly evident that to prolong the debate any further was undesirable, and indeed impossible; and in accordance with the general sense of the House, the question was forthwith put and carried. And thus was the measure safely piloted through one of the most laughable, and at the same time most memorable, second readings, ever recorded in the annals of Parliament.

We must now turn to the consideration of the effect which these proceedings had upon the public mind. In the first place, the Sojourners' Bill, pure and simple, was generally regarded by the nation as a plain measure of justice designed for the benefit of a large and highly deserving class which had hitherto suffered, with a rare patience and uncomplaining fortitude, from a grievance which must in truth have been wellnigh intolerable. (46) The general public cared little as to the Ministerial exigencies which might or might not have led to the introduction of the measure; it cared still less for the effect which the measure might have on such a retrograde constituency as that of Liverpool. What public opinion and the public sense of justice required was, that honest and peaceable foreign travellers should no longer be deprived of those rights which were obviously designed for the enjoyment of every rational being who trod the British soil. With regard to the allegation that an "outrage on humanity" was designed, it was enough for the people that that allegation came from the Tories; and quite apart from this, the strong sense of humour which distinguished the operative sections of the community was rather tickled at the notion of Orong Api, Pongat Wou, and Madame Jocki being objects of terror to the enemies of progress; and although it would be an exaggeration to say that the Simian delegates had, as yet, many active sympathisers in this country, it is nevertheless certain that the general feeling entertained for them throughout England -- and especially London -- was one of careless benevolence, which might at any time be converted into a warmer and more valuable sentiment.

The people, therefore, saw with considerable satisfaction the new Bill passed through a second reading; and the popular voice heartily endorsed the course which the Ministry subsequently pursued when they voted urgency for the measure, and having carried it through every stage of rapid progress, sent it on to the Senate attached to a Money Bill which was extemporised for the purpose. Meantime the Tories were frantic in their denunciations. They insisted, according to their usual practice, that the Constitution had been violated. They declared that they were gifted with a sort of second-sight which enabled them to predict the speedy fall of the Commonwealth, and the eventual subjugation of the whole human race. The Premier wrote from his sick-bed at Windsor to remonstrate with them. They treated his courteous chiding with insolence and ribald vituperation. When the solemn vote of the House of Commons declared the measure to be urgent, they left the House in a body, and repaired to one of their clubs, vowing vengeance, and declaring that the time for words had gone by. The Premier, notwithstanding the treatment he had received from them, began now to make earnest overtures for a reconciliation. His chief motive for so doing may have been public expediency -- the desire to save the public peace from disturbance at the hands of desperate and unscrupulous men; but we may also fairly assume that he felt some pity, and perhaps some prickings of conscience, when he saw and unwillingly recognised in his exasperated opponents, evidence of an intelligence and foresight considerably more advanced than those of his own supporters. However this may have been, the Tories would not listen to him. They had said that "the time for words had gone by." Words were accordingly no longer wasted; and to the eternal disgrace of the Tory party -- to the lasting infamy, especially, of the Tory leader -- a deed of most heinous guilt was forthwith decided upon, and soon afterwards accomplished. A thrill of generous horror tingles our frames even to this day, when we celebrate the mournful anniversary of Orong Api's base and cowardly murder. We will not sully our pen by recording the revolting details; but rather hasten to the more congenial task of describing the stupendous retribution which befell the assassins, and through them, the whole of that "humanity" which they had disgraced.

The Ministry could not affect to ignore the importance of the agitation, and we are persuaded that the Premier himself regarded it with unmixed complacency. Before quitting the retirement of his sick-chamber at Windsor, he received a large and influential deputation of gentlemen interested in the Simian cause. He seems to have treated their representations with very marked attention and courtesy; and when he returned to his post in Parliament, he lost no time in announcing his readiness to bow to the popular voice, to the utmost extent which his sense of duty would warrant. At first he proposed something in the nature of a bargain. A statute was to be passed by which the social status of the Simian race in regard to the penal code was to be distinctly defined; but in the meantime the perpetrators of the late outrage were to be left to the probable punishment which the faulty state of the existing law secured for them -- viz., the payment of heavy damages on the completion of a civil action to be forthwith instituted against them, and the pain of imprisonment at the suit of a society which had already undertaken to prosecute them for cruelty. But public opinion was not in the mood to listen to any talk of a compromise. Stern and unrelenting justice was vehemently demanded, and in no qualified language. The Ministry wavered. It was supposed that the Premier inclined to the course recommended by the Ministerial press and the supporters of the policy of Progress out of doors; and we are fully convinced that supposition was correct. On the other hand, it was believed that the Chancellor, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the President of the Board of Trade, were in favour of less sweeping action. Be that as it may, the irresolution of the Cabinet was speedily ended by two events which proved beyond dispute the futility of attempting to decide the question at issue by any half measures. The sister of Pongat Wou, little Piccanina, was one night waylaid on her journey from the Hall of Varieties to the house where she and the other delegates lodged, and, in spite of the exertions of an escort of two detectives, was mercilessly beaten with cutting whips, and left nearly dead with pain and terror by her cowardly and unmanly assailants, who immediately escaped in a private carriage. On the same day, Orani Jocka, whose old age and physical infirmities might have excited some pity in the most callous breast, narrowly escaped being poisoned. She was in the habit of receiving fruit, of which she was extremely fond, from several of the persons who attended the receptions of the delegates; and an apple which had been handed to her in such a manner as to arouse the suspicions of the interpreter, having been seized and subjected to analysis, was found to contain a large quantity of prussic acid.

These two attempts, each of them providentially unsuccessful, were announced at one and the same time, and we can well imagine the storm of anger which was excited. Indignation meetings were held in every part of the country. The Tory members, who were already suspected of being concerned in all the three outrages which had taken place, were attacked by a mob, pelted, and subjected to much rough usage. No member who was thought to be opposed to a completely Simiophile policy escaped without some sort of molestation; and even the Cabinet Ministers themselves, as they hastened to Council, were threatened with violence. Salutary measures were now taken to allay the general excitement, and to reassure the public mind.

A Bill was introduced, and in six hours passed, by which it was declared "that the same legal privileges and legal protection which had hitherto been enjoyed only by men, women, and children living or sojourning in Great Britain, or in any part of the British possessions, should thenceforth be extended to certain Simian delegates named in the schedule; and to such other parties whose names might from time to time be annexed to, or included in, the said schedule, by direction of the Secretary of State." This enactment was at once so simple and so comprehensive that criticism was disarmed and stultified. (49) The charge which a few irreconcilable opponents of the measure persisted in advancing, "that the Bill had been dictated by panic, the offspring of incompetence," was manifestly absurd. (50) It was surely impossible to sustain the allegation that a great and thoughtful people had been intimidated by the attitude of four humble and almost defenceless beings who could neither read, write, nor speak! Moreover, the only words in the Act which could possibly be interpreted as implying a general concession to the Simian race, were those contained in the permissive clause, which bore reference to a future state of affairs, for which none but a future Ministry could justly be held responsible.

The only question yet remaining to be seriously discussed, was whether or no[t] the new Bill should be made retrospective in its operation; whether, in short, the new law should be so framed as to secure the criminal conviction of Orong Api's assassins, men already branded as heinous sinners. Now the preliminary difficulty of securing these offenders was already on the highroad to solution. The Home Secretary had offered reward of one thousand pounds for the discovery of Orong Api's murderers, and had furthermore promised sums of seven hundred and fifty, and five hundred pounds, in connection with the two other less serious outrages. It was pretty generally known that these liberal proposals had elicited manly and patriotic overtures of response from more than one reliable quarter; and, it was even whispered that a valet recently discharged by one of the Parliamentary Tories, or "Tishbites," was ready to turn informer, providing that his own personal safety and the salvation of the Commonwealth could thereby be assured at one and the same time. But an almost morbid fondness for moderation had of late characterised the policy of the dominant faction, and the disease seems to have infected the Premier in a most remarkable manner. (51) On more than one occasion, and in more than one place, he asserted that he could be no party to any course which savoured of the spirit of revenge; and, in the end he plainly said that the Ministry would take its stand on the platform of a wise and consistent clemency. In this decision he was presently fortified by a Caucusian [sic] mandate, which exhaustively declared the reasons which necessitated the conclusion of an amnesty with the Tory party in regard to all past offences. After a slight show of resistance on some minor details, the people accepted the views which had been thus authoritatively set before them; and thus did the world at large once more witness in England -- the home of moderation -- the accomplishment of an almost bloodless revolution, which at once gave a wholesome and drastic stimulus to the beneficent cause of Progress.

Now we have at our disposal a whole mass of evidence to prove that the social world was ready to bear a part in loyally accepting that condition of things which had now become inevitable. And the presumption that such was, generally speaking, the case, is, we think, sufficiently established by the particular instance which we have cited. When even Tories felt ashamed of the narrow and invidious sentiments with which they had heretofore regarded the delegates, we cannot doubt that the Liberals of society were boiling over with zeal to see accorded to their once persecuted, but now emancipated guests, the largest, the most comprehensive, the most generous social recognition. (57) But the society at large was soon busied in an event of far greater importance than the receptions of a wealthy and popular Minister; and the two delegates, whose faces had grown so familiar to the frequenters of the London salons, were now called upon to discharge their duty as citizens.

We may readily conjecture that with such an enormous infusion of new, and hence incalculable, power into the political system of the nation, the elections were now watched with intense eagerness and curiosity. In some quarters a vague feeling of reactionary alarm appears to have prevailed; but, upon the whole, the people seem to have awaited the course of events with that sturdy and robust confidence which in times of supreme moment has always distinguished the national character. (59) It was doubtless true, as the Tories and Opportunists urged, that if all the newly enfranchised elements chose to combine for the purpose of voting in support of any particular men or measures, the result might be injurious and even fatal to the best interests of the Commonwealth; but this was merely argument based upon assumption; and the actual state of affairs offered the plainest, the most undeniable proof, that a foreign combination hostile to the Ministry which had just dissolved Parliament, was one of the last dangers which this country had any reason to dread. Direct evidence of this fact was soon forthcoming in the action of the Russian Ambassador, who repaired in semi-state to one of the polling-booths, and there recorded his vote in favour of the Birmingham candidates who had been sent to contest the borough of Chelsea, -- an example which was immediately followed by the whole staff of secretaries, attachés, and domestic servants connected with the Embassy. The foreign merchants, too, distinguished themselves by actively supporting the Ministerial party, not only by their votes -- of which they made no secret -- but also by other methods which the laws of the land forbade them to publish; and their exertions may well have put to shame the great body of British traders, who at this crisis made themselves conspicuous by observing towards the popular cause an attitude of sullen and inexplicably bitter animosity. The seamen of the various ships, British and foreign, came on shore in very large numbers; and seem to have very generally availed themselves of the privilege, either prescribed or suggested, by the recent mandate which had established a "liberty day" for all sailors who might express the desire to discharge their duty as citizens. (60) It has never, however, been conclusively determined how they voted, or whether, indeed, the bulk of them voted at all; and it is mainly upon this body of electors that the unfortunate stigma must rest of having blotted the fair fame of England with sundry acts of wayward and capricious violence, which in more than one of the seaport towns approached the proportions of a general riot. (61)

It could not, however, have been reasonably expected that the first practical trial of such a drastic and even revolutionary measure as the Sojourners' Act should have passed off without a certain degree of friction; and we must here express our own respectful wonder at the exemplary behaviour of the masses at the period which we are describing; nor can we refrain from bestowing special praise on the Irish Pilgrims, whose conduct, contrary to the anticipation of many thoughtful men, was exceedingly orderly and temperate, and almost inconsistent with the notion that beneath it lay concealed an implacable hatred towards the British race.

But it now behoves us to turn our attention to what was being done at this time by another newly enfranchised class -- namely, the Bornean delegates. Their attitude would have led the casual observer to suppose that, being amply satisfied with the moral fruits of their recent conquest, they were determined to refrain from any further active agitation; that, in a word, they were doing nothing. Pongat Wou had certainly recorded his vote; and the public curiosity as to the precise means by which he had done so had been successfully baffled, though not altogether appeased; (62) but Jocki had, at the last moment, pleaded indisposition, and she was now, in the Isle of Wight, enjoying, under medical advice, a brief respite from the labours of a brilliant but exceedingly onerous London "season," As for Orani Jocka, the widow of the late chieftain -- and Piccanina Wou, sister to Pongat, -- both of them had returned to their native country some weeks before the announcement of a dissolution, Orani Jocka, it was alleged, had felt slighted by the marked attention which certain other members of the mission had received, to her exclusion; Piccanina, it was supposed, had never quite recovered either from the bodily or the mental effects of the brutal usage to which she had been subjected; and neither of these two delegates, it was decided, interested herself any more in the great work which had originally attracted the mission to England. Yet in truth no plotters were ever more busy; and we shall presently perceive, not only that Jocki, in her marine retreat, was in active and constant communication with Pongat Wou upon matters of most vital moment -- but that the aged Orani Jocka had only left these shores in order to return with arguments more cogent than the mere abstract m