Show LITTLE DORRIT I 1 NTA tING che THE WHOLE SCIENCE OF government tile tila circa circumlocution n office was as everybody 1 I without being told tile tiie most important de kneut under government no p bublic busi nesa ness of any kind could possibly be done at any tone tune without the tile acquiescence of the t ution office its finger vas was in ili the largest public ie ii and in the smallest public tart it was equal v y impossible to do tile plainest right and to undo i ie AO plainest Pi dineSt wrong without the llie express authority ci ti we too circumlocution toffick office if ano another if ier ler gull gun plot had been beon discovered half an hour be lure luro j ro the llie lighting ortho of the tho match nobody would have bevo been justified iu in saving tim tha parliament until there ild iid dja ilu been half a ecore becore of boards half a bushel of in mutes minutes several sacks of official memoranda and a family vault full of ungrammatical corres pon pou prudence pondu dunce dence nce uce on tile the part of the tho circumlocution of niep nice lle tilis tills glorious establishment had beeer carly early in tio fie feld when the one ono sublime principle involving tiie tile difficult art of governing a country was first distin distinctly cily revealed to statesmen it had been foremost to study that bright revelation and to crry its shining influence through the tiie whole of the ecial proceedings whatever was vas required to bo be done tile the circumlocution office was beforehand with all the public depar departments in the tha art of perceiving haw not inot la to do it through this thia delicate perception through tile tho tact with which it invariably seized it and through the genius beulus with which it always acted on it tho i circumlocution office had llad risen to overtop all tile tho public departments and the tha public condition had risen to be what it was it is true that how ilow not to do it was the great study and object of or all public departments and professional politicians all round tile the circumlocution office it is true that overy every new premier and every new government coining in it because they had upheld a certain thing us as necessary to be done were no sooner come in it than they applied their utmost faculties to discovering how not to do doat jl it is true trus that from the moment who when a a general election was over every returned man who wilo had been raving on hustings because it been done and who had been asking asking the friend of the tiie honorable gendeman gentleman in fit the tiie opposite interest on pain of impeachment to tell him libin wh why y it been done and who had bean asserting asser tim that it must be done and who had been pledging himself that it should be done dona begin to advise how liow ilow it was not to ba be done it ia is truo true that the debates of both houses of P taliam nt the ha whole session through uniformity uniform ily lly tended to the protracted deliberation how not to do it it is true trub that the royal speech at the opening of or such session virtually said my lords and gentlemen you have a of work to do and you will please to retire to your respective chambers and discuss how not to do it it is true that the royal speech at the close of such session virtually said my lords and gentlemen you have through several laborious months beatt considering with great loyalty and patriotism how not to do it I 1 and you have llave round found out and with wilh the tile blessing of provi dence upon tha tho harva harvest st natural not P foual olig 01 iz 2 1 I 1 dismiss you all this is true but the circumlocution office went beyond it because the circumlocution of fice went ou on mechanically every day keeping this wonderful erful all sufficient wheel of state statesmanship anian how not to do it ili in motion mo tiou because the circumlocution office was down upa any ill advised s sern ervent int who wilo was going to do it or who appeared to be by any surprising accident in reanoto remote danger of doing it with a minute and a memorandum and a letter of instructions that shed him it was this spirit of national efficiency in the tile circumlocution office that ii ind imd id gradually led to its having something to do with everything met alet naturel natural philosophers soldiers sailors petition petitioners ers memoria lists people with grievances people who wiio wanted lo 10 prevent glie grievances vances people who wanted to redress grievances jobbing people i jabbed people people who wiio couldn coulden t get rewarded revar ded for merit and people who wiio get punished for demerit werd wera ail ah indiscriminately tucked up i u under the foo scap paper of or the tile Circum locut ou 1 office I 1 i numbers of popie were lost in the tile circum locution office unfortunates with wrongs or 1 with tile the project projects a for the tile general welfare and 1 i tiley they had belfer beloer have had wrongs at girst first aliani than I 1 have aken taken that bitter receipt for certain i I 1 if v gi them thein who in slow siow lapse of time and agony had passed safely through other public de del 1 parti who according to rule had bad been bul 1 lied in ili tills overreached over reached by that and evaded by ine other oilier got referred at last to tile tiie tion office and never reappeared in it the light of dy boards sat upon them secretaries upon them commissioners gabbled babbled about them clerks registered ent tnt entered ered checked and ticketed them off and they melted away in fit short all tile ilia business of the country went 1 through the birc circumlocution u in cocu tion office except the bui that liever never came out ut of or it and its name I 1 was legion sometimes Some limes limea augry angry spirits attacked i tile tiie circumlocution office sometimes parliamentary questions were asked about it and even I 1 parliamentary motion made or threatened about it by daniago so low and ignorant as to hold i that the real receipt of Gove government vas was how flow I 1 i to do it then would the tha noble lord or right I 1 bollor abio ablo gentleman in fit whose department it iti wag wai vas tode to defend fond foad the circa elocution office pu put L alli aili an orange in his pocket tind and make a regular field dakof the tile occasion then would lie come do down wn to that house with a slap upon the tile tabie table and meet the honorable gentleman foot to foot then would he lie be there to tell that honorable gentleman that tile the circumlocution effice not only was blameless in ili this matter malter but was commendable in fit this matter was to the skies in ili this matter then would lie be there to tell that honorable 1 gentleman that although tile the tion office was invariably right and who ly right it never vas was so right as in ili this matter tile then would he be there to tell that honorable gentleman that it would have been more to ills his honor more to his credit more to his good taste more to liis his good sense more to half the dictionary of or commonplaces mon places if lie had left the of fice alone atos alos e and never approached this matter then would ha he keep one eye upon a coach or crammer fronia the circumlocution office sitting below the bar and smash the honorable gentle man with llie tile circumlocution office account of this matter malter and although one of or two things always happened namely either that the circumlocution ii oell office ice had nothing to say and said it or that t had something to say of which the noble lord or right honorable gentleman blundered one half and forgot the tile other the tiie circumlocution office was a always voted immaculate by an accommodating majority such uch a nursery of or statesmen bad lad the become ili in virtue of a long carreer of chii nature that several solemn lords had at tilled the reputation of or being quite unearthly prodigies of business solely from having practised practiced ilow how not to do it at the head of ha tho tion office As to tile the minar priests and acolytes aeo neo lytes of that temple the result of all this was wag that they tiley stood divided into two classes and dawn to the junior messenger either believed in the circumlocution office as a heaven born institution that had an absolute right to do whatever it liked or took refuge ili in total infidelity and considered it a flagrant nuisance the barnacle family had for some somo I 1 time helped to administer the circumlocution office the tiie tite birn BArn barnacle acle acla branch brancil Bran cli cil indeed considered themselves in a 9 general beneral way as having vested rights ili in that direction and took it ill if adv other family had much to sav say to it the tile barnacles barnacled Barn acles were a very high family and a very large family they were dispersed all over the tiie public offices and field all sorts of public places either the nation was under a load of obligation to the barnacles barnacled Barn acles or the barnacled barnacles Barn acles were under a load of obligation to the nation it was not quite unanimously settled which the brna barna cles having their opi oai opinion aion nion the nation theirs tile tiie mr tite tile barnacle who at the period now in question usually coached or crammed the statesmen at the head of the circumlocution office when that noble or right Ion lon honorable oraLle individual sat a little uneasily ili in his saddie saddle by reason of ome vagabond making a tilt at him in it a newspaper was more flush of blood than money As a barnacle lie had his piare place which was a snug snug tiling thing enough and as a barnacle Barnac leahr leAhn iia lie had bad of course put his liis son bae Bat barnacle nacle nacie junior juni orin in the office but lie he had intermarried inter married with a branch abraner of the who were also better endowed in a sanguineous point of view than with real or personal property and nd of this marriage there had been issue barnacle Bir nacle ju junior bior and three young I 1 idies zes what with the patrician requirements of barnacle junior j u bior the three vou you young rig ladies mrs tite barnacle nee Slit seit stalking and himself mr tite rite barnacle found the intervals between quarter day and quarter day rather longer than lie he could have llave desired a circumstance which he always attributed to the count rys parsimony pardi parri mony arthur clennan having been informed by little dorrit that the hiie chief obstacle to her fathers release from lay with a mr barnacle and thinking that it might be in cou con nexion 1 with soma som matter associated with the tiie Cir clr circumlocution cunil locution office proceeds to that national institution of mystification where tie has lias a lively tete antte a ute with ono one of the barnacles barnacled Barn acles junior from whom he lie is unable to obtain satisfactory information thence he goes noes goes from office to office from department to department from floor to floor until he hs finds another barnacle on the more sprightly side of tile the family who says oil oh you had better not hother bother yourself about it I 1 think but on oil mr Clen clennan nani persevering jie gives liim hirt the sige advice to continue his enquiries until he has ascertained in which department the case lies then memorialize that department according to regular forms which find out for loa lea leave ve to memorialize this department if you get it which you yon may after a time that memorial must be entered I 1 in it that department sent to be registered in this tilis department sent back to be signed by that department seia sela sent back to bal be coun by this department and then it will begin begill to be regularly before that department L find out when the bu bulnes ines passes through each of tilso tilse thase those ill ili so stages bv asking at both departments till they tell you dut but t surely this is not the way to do the tile business arthur artilur clennan could not help saying this tilis airy young barnacle was quite entertained by his ills fit in supposing for a moment that it was this light ii in hand band young barnacle Barnac ld knew perfectly that it was not this touch and go young barnacle had got up the department in it a private that he might be ready for any little bit of fat that camo came to hand band and he fully understood the llie department to be a politico diplo matico hocus piece of machinery for the assistance of tile the in ili keeping off the tile snobs this dashing young barnacle in fit a word was likely to beelee a statesman and to make a figure when tile tiie business is regularly before that department whatever it is 31 pursued the bright young barnacle then you can watch it from time to ihne lime ilme through that departs department ul when it comes regularly before this department then you mus must t watch it from time to time through this tills de apartment part ment we shall have to refer it right and left and when we refer it anaw lie rethen faveto have to look hitup it up when it i c comes mes back bac to us any time then you on had better look us up when it sticks anywhere youil have to try to give giro it a jog when you write to another department about it and then to this department about it and dont hear anything satisfactory at out it why then you had better keep on writing arthur looked very doub doubtful trul indeed but I 1 am obliged to on u at any rate said he for your politeness 4 not at all replied this thia engaging young barnacle barnaclo try the tiling and you liko it it will be ili in your power lo 10 give it up at any time if you don t like it you llad better take a lot of forms away with you give him a lot of forms with which instruction to number two this sparkling ap arklin g young barnacle took a fresh handful of papers from numbers one and ald three and carried them thern into the sanctuary to ofner offer to the presiding idols idos of the circum circum locution office |