“Undoubtedly,” assented Mr. Podsnap; “But So it is. It was the Charter of the Land. This Island was Blest, Sir, to the Direct Exclusion of such Other Countries as⁠—as there may happen to be. And if we were all Englishmen present, I would say,” added Mr. Podsnap, looking round upon his compatriots, and sounding solemnly with his theme, “that there is in the Englishman a combination of qualities, a modesty, an independence, a responsibility, a repose, combined with an absence of everything calculated to call a blush into the cheek of a young person, which one would seek in vain among the Nations of the Earth.”

Having delivered this little summary, Mr. Podsnap’s face flushed, as he thought of the remote possibility of its being at all qualified by any prejudiced citizen of any other country; and, with his favourite right-arm flourish, he put the rest of Europe and the whole of Asia, Africa, and America nowhere.