Thus was Great Britain reduced to the level of a third-rate Power--a downfall not without precedent in the history of the world's great empires. But sadder even than the accomplished downfall was the fact that vast numbers of Britons had grown used to the situation, had so lost the patriotic spirit and fibre of their forefathers that the loss of race-dominance and of the mighty influence of good which Empire had sustained, seemed to them of little moment compared with their immediate individual advantage and petty personal interests. CHAPTER III. ABOARD THE AIR-SHIP. "So you've made the young lady's acquaintance on the river?" remarked the Judge, looking amusedly at his nephew. "Yes," said Linton, "and the President's, ... in the garden." "'Youth, youth, how buoyant are thy hopes,'" quoted Sir Robert, chuckling. "And," added the young man, with a slightly heightened colour, which the gathering dusk failed to conceal, "they've promised me a trip in their air-boat!" Sir Robert groaned. "Air-boats! Wish they'd never been invented." He flicked away the ash of his cigar and gazed at the first stars faintly twinkling in the evening sky. They were sitting on the terrace, and the September air was as balmy as the breath of June. "Look!" exclaimed Herrick, springing to his feet, "don't you see one over yonder?" His uncle gazed and nodded. "And just imagine," he said, "what it will mean when the present law expires and all restrictions are removed. Everyone will want to be at liberty to 'aviate'; and as a consequence, we shall want an enormous staff of air-police to control the upper traffic and check outrage and robbery. I tell you, sir, the world's going too fast. The thing won't work!" "Everything will settle into shape in time," argued Linton, soothingly, his eyes still following the evolutions of the air-boat with its twinkling lights. "Well, you're young, and may live to see it, but it won't be in my day," sighed Sir Robert, "and I don't want it to be. Who wants an air-ship calling for his parlour-maid at the attic window? Who wants thieves sailing up to his balcony? And as to collapses and collisions overhead--we've had some of 'em already--and it don't add to the gaiety of nations or the comfort and security of the peaceful citizen down below." "It'll all come right, sir," said Herrick cheerfully. "Perhaps it will and perhaps it won't," was his uncle's comment. "It's not so much a question of individuals as of nations. How are we going to regulate international commerce? The fiscal question, like the Eastern question, will assume a wholly different character. You may sail a ship, but you can't build custom houses in the air. What about imports and exports? What about a hundred things that have been governed hitherto by the broad fact that man and merchandise have only been able to move about either on sea or land?" "She's coming this way," exclaimed the inattentive Herrick.