NEW METHOD OF QUEEN-MAKING. 241 



shame, my lords," said she ; " why droop ye ? There are 

 other weapons besides the sword ; and though in virtue of my 

 sex I wear one, on the present occasion 'tis a useless remedy. 

 However, gentlemen, I know a better trick : I am old, and 

 have long laboured in the haunts of those gigantic creatures 

 who call themselves our masters ; but I have laboured not only, 

 like my sisterhood, to collect within their wide domain of the 

 stores requisite for our provision, but also to glean a know- 

 ledge of their arts and sciences, not a few of which I find them 

 to have borrowed from ourselves. Indeed, although they 

 boast themselves superior to our race, they have always cried 

 up the merits of our ancient institutions, lamentably defective 

 as they are. For many ages (even till the beginning of the 

 present century) these wise-acres were contented enough with 

 what they called hereditary sovereigns poor bungling tools, 

 as bad as ours, or worse ; but now, (having at length taken 

 the hint from us,) they have learned to manufacture their own 

 sovereigns, as we our queens, only after a much more clever 

 and complete method. TFe, with our boasted elixir of certain 

 and invariable properties, stuff and stimulate body and mind 

 into an invariable shape, converting what would have been a 

 useful, active member of society into an enormous, bloated, 

 idle, cruel tyrant. They, by means of a wondrous art called 

 mesmerism, acting on mind according as they please, contrive 

 to expand the virtues and repress the vicious propensities of 

 their infant subject (be it of royal or of humble birth), till they 



