The Penguin returned thanks. He would try to deserve their confidence. It was not in his nature to contradict any one. He had once tried fighting, but it was so foreign to his tastes that he fainted in the attempt. He would never do it again. He would do just what they wanted, and if he was advised differently by different counsellors, he would always be careful to follow the advice last received. As to his policy, man was to be overthrown, and he thought the best mode of achieving that end was to preserve a “masterly inactivity.” The Penguin spoke at some length in a strain of piercing eloquence, quoting Hail Columbia, Shakespeare, and Martin Farquhar Tupper.
The Animal Declaration of Independence Harper’s January 1857 [edited extract being part nine in a series of 19]
