_The Rev. Dr. Folliott_.—I will not say any percentage at all. _Mr. Mac Quedy_.—“On the principle of the division of labour—” _The Rev. Dr. Folliott_.—Government was invented to spend a percentage. _Mr. Mac Quedy_.—To save a percentage. _The Rev. Dr. Folliott_.—No, sir, to spend a percentage; and a good deal more than two and a half percent. Two hundred and fifty per cent.: that is intelligible. _Mr. Mac Quedy_.—“In the infancy of society—” _Mr. Toogood_.—Never mind the infancy of society. The question is of society in its maturity. Here is what it should be. (Producing a paper.) I have laid it down in a diagram. _Mr. Skionar_.—Before we proceed to the question of government, we must nicely discriminate the boundaries of sense, understanding, and reason. Sense is a receptivity— _Mr. Crotchet_, _jun._—We are proceeding too fast. Money being all that is wanted to regenerate society, I will put into the hands of this company a large sum for the purpose. Now let us see how to dispose of it. _Mr. Mac Quedy_.—We will begin by taking a committee-room in London, where we will dine together once a week, to deliberate. _The Rev. Dr. Folliott_.—If the money is to go in deliberative dinners, you may set me down for a committee man and honorary caterer. _Mr. Mac Quedy_.—Next, you must all learn political economy, which I will teach you, very compendiously, in lectures over the bottle. _The Rev. Dr. Folliott_.—I hate lectures over the bottle. But pray, sir, what is political economy? _Mr. Mac Quedy_.—Political economy is to the state what domestic economy is to the family. _The Rev. Dr. Folliott_.—No such thing, sir. In the family there is a _paterfamilias_, who regulates the distribution, and takes care that there shall be no such thing in the household as one dying of hunger, while another dies of surfeit. In the state it is all hunger at one end, and all surfeit at the other. Matchless claret, Mr. Crotchet. _Mr. Crotchet_.—Vintage of fifteen, Doctor. _Mr. Mac Quedy_.—The family consumes, and so does the state. _The Rev. Dr. Folliott_.—Consumes, air! Yes: but the mode, the proportions: there is the essential difference between the state and the family. Sir, I hate false analogies. _Mr. Mac Quedy_.—Well, sir, the analogy is not essential. Distribution will come under its proper head. _The Rev. Dr. Folliott_.—Come where it will, the distribution of the state is in no respect analogous to the distribution of the family. The _paterfamilias_, sir: the _paterfamilias_. _Mr. Mac Quedy_.—Well, sir, let that pass. The family consumes, and in order to consume, it must have supply. _The Rev. Dr. Folliott_.—Well, sir, Adam and Eve knew that, when they delved and span. _Mr. Mac Quedy_.—Very true, sir (reproducing his scroll). “In the infancy of society—”