"That we have, too truly, Mr. Subdean!" echoed Mr. Nicholas, and sighed very dolorously. "Nay, I do not think there is any cause for regret, in all this," observed his cheerful and more enlightened acquaintance; "whatever severe causes may have operated to produce it, no philanthropist can regret that there is discernible the commencement of a spirit of self-respect on the part of the poor. We are all equal in the sight of our Maker, you know, my friend; and for my part I assure you, I do not desire that the old usages of servility should be resumed, and the great first law of human brotherhood be again lost sight of--for, I suspect, that was too often the fact while the brother in superfine cloth received such frequent obeisance from the brother in ragged linen." "I must again say you surprise me greatly, sir," observed Gentleman Nixon, beginning again to recover his belligerent humour. "But _do not_ be surprised, Mr. Nixon," answered the churchman, instantly and persuasively: "the world has changed, though you remain an honest Tory, and----" "And you have become a Whig, sir, I fear," observed Mr. Nicholas, while his face and throat began to assume the hue of a distempered turkey-cock. "No, Mr. Nixon, a Conservative, if you please." "All the same," said the retired gentleman, but with a subsidence of his mettle; "scarcely any thing but a distinction without a difference." "To speak the broad truth," resumed the clergyman, "there are but very few now, who boast themselves,--as you do, Mr. Nixon, most honestly,--to be Tories. Nor are you very far from right in your belief of the resemblance of some other parties,--for the old Whig and the modern Conservative are nearly akin. The modern Whig would also have been a Radical some few years ago, while the hotter advocates for change have also considerably enlarged their demands." "And do you pretend to tell me, Mr. Subdean," asked Mr. Nicholas, very impatiently, "that you and others are any other than madmen to yield to this jacobinical spirit of change?--I say jacobinical--the plain word that my father used, and that I believe to be the best word."