CHAPTER XLV.
THE FATE OF THE NAVVIES And now, having dispatched Alaric and his wife and bairns on their long journey, we must go back for a while and tell how Charley had been transformed from an impudent, idle young Navvy into a well-conducted, zealous young Weights.
When Alaric was convicted, Charley had, as we all know, belonged to the Internal Navigation; when the six months' sentence had expired, Charley was in full blow at the decorous office in Whitehall; and during the same period Norman had resigned and taken on himself the new duties of a country squire.

The change which had been made had affected others than Charley.

It had been produced by one of those far-stretching, world-moving commotions which now and then occur, sometimes twice or thrice in a generation, and, perhaps, not again for half a century, causing timid men to whisper in corners, and the brave and high-spirited to struggle with the struggling waves, so that when the storm subsides they may be found floating on the surface.

A moral earthquake had been endured by a portion of the Civil Service of the country.
The Internal Navigation had--No, my prognostic reader, it had not been reformed; no new blood had been infused into it; no attempt had been made to produce a better discipline by the appointment of a younger secretary; there had been no carting away of decayed wood in the shape of Mr.Snape, or gathering of rank weeds in the form of Mr.Corkscrew; nothing of the kind had been attempted.
No--the disease had gone too far either for phlebotomy, purging, or cautery.

The Internal Navigation had ceased to exist! Its demise had been in this wise .-- It may be remembered that some time since Mr.Oldeschole had mentioned in the hearing of Mr.
Snape that things were going wrong.