81 



habitant of the planet Jupiter taking- a turn about 

 the solar system to see what he could see. At last 

 he came to our earth ; but concluding- it was not in- 

 habited, he departed again immediately. He said; 

 " Ce qui fait que je pense qu'il n'y a ici personne, 

 " c'est qu'il me parait que des gens de bons sens ne 

 " voudraient pas y demeurer." I wonder what such 

 a being would say if he were told that the earth is 

 inhabited, and that there are in it peoples of whose 

 governments the sole principle is " pressure." That 

 amongst these peoples the only power that is ac- 

 knowledged is " combination." That the question, 

 "Who combine?" is never asked; but only the 

 question, " How many combine ?" That quantity 

 is all, quality nothing. That wisdom is powerless, 

 because the wise are few ; and that foolishness rules, 

 because the foolish are many ; so that, if amongst 

 these peoples the thieves and malefactors would only 

 combine in sufficient numbers, the thieves and male- 

 factors would be the rulers and governors. If he 

 were told all this, I think our friend from Jupiter 

 would cut his visit even shorter than before, but 

 from different reasons. 



I am afraid I have been rather digressing, so I 

 will return to my subject, which was our muddled 

 legislation about the cattle plague. As I said, the 

 legislature must have been terribly confused by the 

 confusion of opinion that prevailed in the governing 

 governed classes ; but no doubt as we advance to- 

 wards universal suffrage, matters will become sim- 



