Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/227

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THE PARLIAMENT OF PANDAPOLIS
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make a respectful obeisance, which the House was pleased to return, cheering and clapping its hands) he, the Hon. Premier, had pleasure in assuring his hon. friends and colleagues that Mr. Ubertus had it in his power to give them some valuable information, when the Bill for building the new Pandapolis should be laid on the table. Amongst other wonderful things he could tell them that not very far from the Great Lake the coaches went along without horses, the vapour of boiling water making the wheels go round. (Loud laughter and ironical cheers.)

To cut my story as short as possible, and confine it within reasonable dimensions, I shall omit many of the very remarkable speeches which I heard on that wonderful day (or night). The general tone of the House was decidedly in favour of the Bill now laid on the table—that for building the new city. I pass by the etiquette of Parliamentary practice, not being very well acquainted with it. The different speakers enlarged with extraordinary eloquence on the new pleasures and conveniences awaiting them in their grand residences in one of the most salubrious and beautiful countries in the world. They contrasted them with their gloomy, though dazzling, abodes in the underground region, of which they were all heartily sick and tired, and where they saw nothing but lamp, lamp, night and day. There they would have the glorious light of the sun, and almost an ocean of delicious water, and exquisite fish, fat beef, excellent mutton, and indescribable bacon, to say nothing of fowls and hog-puddings, for which they were all constantly and miserably dying. They would be near their dear relatives and friends in the flesh, with whom they could maintain eternal and delightful intercourse; and when those friends were obliged to resign their fleshly dwellings, they would be close at hand to conduct their emancipated ghosts into the fine palaces prepared for them