Hydra-Headed Prejudices and a Body of Cousins :: SteynOnline

Welcome to the final instalment of our latest Tale for Our Time – The Fixed Period by Anthony Trollope. In tonight’s concluding episode, en route to England to preach his “fixed period”, ex-President Neverbend has a sudden worry that in a class-bound society people will want exceptions made for the Sovereign and elderly Royal dukes. Maybe he should be heading to America instead…

I did feel that a new difficulty would arise from the extreme veneration paid to certain characters. In England how would it be with the Royal Family? Would it be necessary to exempt them down to the extremest cousins; and if so, how large a body of cousins would be generated! I feared that the Fixed Period could only be good for a republic in which there were no classes violently distinguished from their inferior brethren. If so, it might be well that I should go to the United States, and there begin to teach my doctrine. No other republic would be strong enough to stand against those hydra-headed prejudices with which the ignorance of the world at large is fortified..

After all, if all men are created equal, how hard can it be to persuade them they should all be equally dead?

Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read the conclusion of The Fixed Period simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.

Thank you so much for your compliments about Tales for Our Time during these hellish times. Some like the ripping yarns for boys, some the more genteel social comedy for girls, and some of you even enjoyed our bit of summer whimsy from yours truly. But of the tales in totality all seem to be in favour.

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See you next month for another Tale for Our Time – and for some Mark Steyn Club fifth anniversary observances.