at its contents.

"O! then," said he, "it is a balance of the money your father gave him for you. Why, you won't be such a greenhorn as to send it, will you?"

I answered, "Certainly!"

"Lord! what nonsense!" he continued, "it is your own! And with this you can get everything you want."

Then he jeered me for being pennyless; and went on till I began to reflect on my father's niggardliness, and that I might never meet with such another opportunity. I listened to his argument that, at any rate I had a right to a portion of the money, because a boy ought to have money in his pocket. While talking, he broke the seal, and cried out; "See, it is open by accident, quite by accident; and here is the money!" A sight of the enclosure, as he foresaw, was more effective than his oratory. The sum was indeed a very small one, though I thought it inexhaustible. By my comrade's kind assistance it was quickly expended, my share being swallowed up in the purchase of a gun, powder, and shot; he had the larger portion.

The ensuing morning we went out a-birding. My companion let me have the first shot, and then, as we had agreed to fire alternately, I gave him the gun. Here I was foiled, for he insisted on retaining the gun. I entreated him to let me have my turn, but in vain; I taxed him with his breach of word, and murmured that it was my gun; upon which the muzzle of the gun was pointed at me, and I was kicked. Thus we went on, till weary of finding nothing to kill, or, which is the same, being unable to kill anything, towards noon we were both hungry when he ordered me to part with my last crown to buy refreshment from a farm-house. There was no choice; he, with the gun, was my master. After this, growing insolent, his commands were, that I should put up my hat for him to have a shot at it. I at first refused; but he swore that he would permit me to have the second fire at my own hat, and then, if I did not put as many shot in it as he did, I was to lose the crown. To this I agreed; he fired, and gave me the gun loaded. The instant it was in my hand I pointed it, not at my hat, but at the hat on his head, exclaiming, "Hat for hat!" and pulled the trigger. He looked aghast, and screamed out, "You will shoot me!"

I told him I intended as much, and snapped again. It was not primed. Luckily his cunning for once saved his life. He ran off; I primed the gun and followed him; he had got forty or fifty yards a-head; when, as he was jumping a hedge, I stopped and fired. He fell; and my rage instantly turned into sorrow. He lay on his face, shrieking out he was killed; I put the gun down, which was now offensive to his sight, and went up to him. He was dreadfully frightened, and a little hurt, begging me not to do him further harm, and declaring he should die. Good-luck had directed the shot exactly to the part where he merited the birch. On repeated assurances that he was not much hurt, I persuaded him to let me lead him home. Before he arrived at the school he was much better. He then complained to the master, contrary to the terms I had bound him to by oath. The master without appealing to me, laid a deodand on the gun, and placed me under confinement.

At the expiration of two days I was sent for, lectured, and informed that a letter from my father directed my being sent on board a frigate then fitting for sea. On the following morning I went on board. We went to sea in a few days, and cruised off Havre-de-Grace. The captain was intimately acquainted with my family. He was a red-gilled, sycophantic Scotchman, the son of an attorney, and had bowed and smirked himself into the notice of royalty. His first lieutenant was a Guernsey-man, a low-bred, mean-spirited, malicious scoundrel, who disliked all who were better than himself, and that was everyone. However, there was a fine set of boys for my messmates, so that the time passed on tolerably well at first. Yet I now saw the navy was not suited to me. The captain being intrusted with unlimited power, it depended on his humours to make a heaven or hell of his ship. I was no studier of men's humours, no truckler to those in power, consequently I was hated. I was soon dissatisfied, and longed for freedom. Then, in the navy, I had looked forward to active service and fighting; here was none, nor the probability of any, while many told me they had been all their lives at sea, without seeing a shot fired. In short, the battle of Trafalgar seemed the last act of naval warfare, and old Duckworth's passion for Cornish mutton and

potatoes had prevented my initiation into the profession with glory, which might have urged me to persevere.

Nothing is so slavish and abject as the deportment of junior officers on board a man of war. You must not even look at your superior with discontent. Your hat must be ever in your hand, bowing in token of submission to all above you. Then if the captain, or any of the lieutenants happen to dislike you, so utterly are you in their power, that existence becomes scarcely endurable. How much soever you may be in the right, it matters not; for your superiors, like majesty, can do no wrong, and opposition is fruitless.

This may be necessary to the effective discipline of the navy, or not. No one can deny it is an evil; and this is certain, that all, whilst in subordinate situations, complain of it as an evil, and resolve, when they possess the power, to remedy it. But, good intentions, when the period arrives for executing them, are forgotten, or no longer considered good. To make alterations is then called a dangerous innovation, a bad precedent, an impossibility. They expound their new creed in specious common-places: "we must do as others do; things go on well as they are; it is presumption to attempt change; " thus glossing over their own natural desire to tyrannize in their turn, often strongest in those who have been most severely treated. They continue following the beaten track, and perpetuating a system, no matter how corrupt; and if they live only for themselves, they act, as the world calls it, prudently, if not wisely. As Bacon says of the ant, "It is a wise creature for itself, but a shrewd thing in an orchard or garden." For every one opposes with hate every one that purposes an alteration, because it implies that every one has hitherto been in error, and, what is equally humiliating, has not been consulted. Reformers, in all ages, whatever has been their object, have been unpitied martyrs; and the multitude have evinced a savage exultation in their sacrifice. "Let in the light upon a nest of young owls, and they cry out against the injury you have done them." Men of mediocrity are young owls: when you present them with strong and brilliant ideas, they exclaim against them as false, dangerous, and deserving of punishment: "Every abuse attempted to be reformed is the patrimony of those who have more influence than the reformers."

H

CHAPTER IX.

And from that hour did I, with earnest thought,
Heap knowledge from forbidden mines of lore,
Yet nothing that my tyrants knew or taught
I cared to learn, but from that secret store
Wrought linked armour for my soul, before
It might walk forth to war among mankind.

SHELLEY.

AD it been optional, I would now have left the navy; notwithstanding, my passion for the sea was undiminished. I felt it was not in my nature to submit to a long apprenticeship of servitude. Before I could possibly be a master, fourteen or more years might elapse; and fourteen years then seemed to me a long life. From that time forward, I brooded exclusively on the possibility of breaking my indentures, and seeking my own fortunes, as tales and histories tell us people did in the olden times. But then my friendless situation, and ignorance of the world, appeared an effectual bar; and still my heart yearned at the recollection of my mother, whom I then almost worshipped, and of my sisters. A thousand tender remembrances of early life clung to my heart; while the continued persecution of my fate, long absence, neglect, and the memory of my stern and unforgiving father, made me of a desponding and unhappy disposition. But to continue my narrative.

At this period of my life an involuntary passion was awakened in my bosom for reading; so that I seized on every occasion for borrowing and collecting books, and every leisure moment for reading them. Old plays, voyages and travels were my principal study; and I almost learned by heart Captain Bligh's narrative of his voyage to the south-sea islands, and of the mutiny of his crew: his partial account did not deceive me. I detested him for his tyranny, and Christian was my hero. I wished his fate had been mine, and longed to emulate him. It left an impression on my mind which has had a marked influence on my life.

Our captain's clerk, seeing I had a good store of books, with no place to put them in, thought they would be an ornament to his cabin, for he never read. He proposed to take care of them

for me, offering me the use of his cabin, where I might read them. I gladly acquiesced in what I, simple fool that I then was, thought a most kind offer; and, for a few days, we got on very well together. One day I went for a book; he was angry about something or nothing, and had the impudence to say, "You may read here if you like; but I will not permit any books to be taken out of my cabin."

"Are they not mine?" I asked.

"Not now;" he replied.

"What!" I then asked, "do you intend to keep possession of my books?"

To this I received no other answer than,-" Come,-none of your insolence ! "

Upon this, I said, "Give me my books; I will leave them here no longer, now I see your object." He dared me to touch them; I snatched one from the shelf; he struck me; I returned the blow. It was then harmless as the unweaned colt's.

My opponent was two or three and twenty, strong and thick set; I a tall slim boy of fourteen. The presumption of my returning his blow so astonished his cowardly nature, that, for a moment, he hesitated what to do. But some of the youngsters had collected round the door, and cried out, "Well done, my boy!" which incensed the paltry, dirty scrawler. He seized hold of me, and vociferating, "You young rascal, I will tame you!" gave me a blow with a ruler, which he broke over my head; then jammed me up against the bulk-head, so that I could not escape, and belaboured me without mercy. As long as my strength lasted, I opposed him. The lookers-on were encouraging me, and exclaiming shame on him. My head grew dizzy from blows; my mouth and nose were bleeding profusely; my body was subdued, but not my spirit. I asked not for mercy, but defied him; and on his attempting to kick me out of the cabin, I increased his fury, by declaring I would not leave it, till he had given me my books. We were thus contending, he to force me out, and I to remain in, when he kicked me in the stomach, and I lay motionless; while he roared and sputtered," Get out, you rascal! or I'll knock the life out of you!"