Oh, Disraeli, great oppositionist, man of the bitter brow! or, Oh, Molesworth, great reformer, thou who promisest Utopia.

They come; each with that serene face, and each,-- alas, me! alas, my country!--each with a despatch box! Oh, the serenity of Downing Street! My brothers, when hope was over on the battle-field, when no dimmest chance of victory remained, the ancient Roman could hide his face within his toga, and die gracefully.

Can you and I do so now?
If so, 'twere best for us; if not, oh my brothers, we must die disgracefully, for hope of life and victory I see none left to us in this world below.

I for one cannot trust much to serene face and despatch box! There might be truth in this, there might be depth of reasoning; but Englishmen did not see enough in the argument to induce them to withdraw their confidence from the present arrangements of the government, and Dr Anticant's monthly pamphlet on the decay of the world did not receive so much attention as his earlier works.

He did not confine himself to politics in these publications, but roamed at large over all matters of public interest, and found everything bad.
According to him nobody was true, and not only nobody, but nothing; a man could not take off his hat to a lady without telling a lie;--the lady would lie again in smiling.