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.