Like the people of Earth, the Martians were influenced to a far greater extent by the fabrication than by the truth, which latter they cast aside altogether, preferring to believe Godfrey rather than his more truthful companions, so that though as a race they were superior to Earthians, they possessed the same characteristics in that they only believed what suited their purpose, were it true or false. After a little discussion the judges sentenced Godfrey to imprisonment for life, during which he would have to do such work as was required of him, they thinking that after his three friends had explained the secrets, and had been executed, he would be at hand to solve any difficulties which might crop up in the future, so he was led away to prison, amidst general satisfaction. Saying nothing to him of the fate they had decided upon for the three others, the judges sentenced them to death, their execution to take place within three days, unless they explained the working of their ship in the meantime, and if they complied with this and explained everything so that the Martians could navigate the vessel, they should not die, but remain prisoners on Mars as long as they lived, their ship becoming the property of the state; for the Martians had an idea that by its means they could eventually settle on another planet when their own became too dry to be comfortable. Even immediately many of the people could be sent to Earth, and preferably England, which they knew from the accounts the visitors had given to the Bonians for ages past had been foolish in allowing herself to be the free dumping-ground for all the refuse of other Earth-nations who liked to come, for though many questions might be asked, they need not be answered, or could be answered very indifferently by proxy. In this way England had become overrun with an undesirable foreign element, for in the height of her prosperity she gave all a welcome, blind to the possibility that harm could come, and that though she held the zenith of the world there might come a setting. Spain, Greece, Russia, Turkey, and other powers had long sunk below the horizon, and to oblivion, and already many of England’s foreign possessions had passed to the stranger, for England had loved the perfumed air and the lap of luxury too much to protest—till the power to protest was lost. Her children had been pampered and pauperised till they expected all things to come to them without effort, and rather than work for their needs they bartered England’s honour for a downy bed; and the time had come when other nations could do just as they liked, if it was done pleasantly and insidiously and caused no inconvenience; so that the Martians knew that England would be the best place in the whole solar system to which the selfish could retire, leaving the weak and the undesirables on their own planet to fight out their doom as best they could.