toasts drunk, to the healths of Mr Melmotte and Mr Fisker, and two speeches were of course made by them.  Mr Melmotte may have been held to have clearly proved the genuineness of that English birth which he claimed by the awkwardness and incapacity which he showed on the occasion.  He stood with his hands on the table and with his face turned to his plate blurted out his assurance that the floating of this railway company would be one of the greatest and most successful commercial operations ever conducted on either side of the Atlantic.  It was a great thing,—­a very great thing;—­he had no hesitation in saying that it was one of the greatest things out.  He didn’t believe a greater thing had ever come out.  He was happy to give his humble...