Page:Sylvester Sound the Somnambulist (1844).djvu/360

"And you'll give me a copy, of course," said Quocks.

"Well, I don't mind, because it'll fructify your views."

"You'll give me one, too," cried Bobber, "won't you?"

"Well, you shall have a copy."

"I must have one," said Legge.

"How many more of you?"

"It's such a very pretty song," said Mrs. Legge, archly; "you'll not, of course, refuse to give me a copy of it."

"Well. I'd better have three or four secretaries of state down here, just to assist me. But you shall have copies: I'll take care of that, and you know, if I say that I'll do a thing, I'll do it. There's no mistake at all about me. I'm John Bull, right up and down straight, and I don't care who knows it, that's another thing, my boys."

"Well, but how about the ghost?" suggested Sylvester; "I'm afraid we shall not see it to-night."

"The ghost, sir, may come if it likes," said Obadiah; "or keep away if it likes, and do what it likes. I'd extend the eternal principle of liberty, even to a ghost. But, gentlemen," he added, rising, "I've a toast to propose—a toast which I'm sure you'll all fructify in juxtaposition with as much boney fideness as I do. It is a toast, gentlemen, which reflects upon the country the highest national honour a man can feel: a toast which, setting aside all party questions, is, perhaps, the most exuberant manifestation of manhood it's possible for any nation in Europe to show. The mind may amalgamate, the senses may soar, the human heart which beats in the breast of a man may fructify, and fructify, and keep on continually fructifying, till fructification is lost in the utter annihilation of worlds; but the toast I'm about to propose to you, gentlemen, is one which beats all your philosophy hollow. Gentlemen, we have been honoured to-night with the presence of one who shines a lustre in the atmosphere of intellect, and beats metaphysics into fits. He has come amongst us, gentlemen, to illumine our rays, like the rainbow in the heavens, great, glorious, and grammatical. He is, gentlemen, one of that boney fide nobleness of nature in his bosom, which scorns an act of meanness in his nature, and makes his mind throb with hospitality. He has, gentlemen, been with us to-night like a star in the horizon which sheds its refreshment around; and I, as I think that you'll have no difficulty in guessing the party to which I allude, I'll at once, without preface, propose the good health of that boney fide trump, there, by which we've been honoured."

Cheers, of course, followed this eloquent speech, which so convulsed Sylvester with laughter, that it nearly awoke him. At length, however, assuming a look of gravity, he rose and said—

"Gentlemen, I duly appreciate the extremely high compliment which has just been paid me by our eloquent friend, who is, moreover, a friend to the human race, including Bonaparte, Peter the Great, and Harry Brougham. I call it a bona fide compliment, associated as it has been with fructifying freedom; and I ought to feel proud of being thus in amalgamating juxtaposition with a statesman whose chief characteristics have been so conspicuously developed."