We used a descending sort.

We Canadians like to think of ourselves as different.

to set up an alibi

Thus Lord King asserted, February 28, 1818, That the whole of what the noble Secretary of State, Lord Liverpool, had said, amounted to this, that the Sinking Fund was only nominal, and had not paid one shilling of the debt. To which Lord Liverpool replied, He begged to differ with his Lordship, and was of opinion, that the Sinking Fund was real.