CHAPTER XIX

DISILLUSION

Goodbye to the bush - Indecision - Leave it to chance - Ship for England - Incidents of voyage home - Personal combat with a villainous Jew - Queer doings - Appointed to Channel Fleet - Admiral Blether, K.C.B., &c., &c. - Heroic hogwash - Fenians - Attempt to capture the Head Centre - An Irish wedding - Southend : al fresco bathing - Mr. Gladstone - Lord Houghton.

THE unhappy word with which I have headed this chapter describes completely the frame of mind into which I was drifting. Not that I disliked the life in the bush - in fact it appealed to me in a thousand ways, and I should have been content to embrace it as my own under different circumstances. The wideness of the life and the extraordinary sense of freedom which grows on all Australians suited my temperament in every way.

But the time had come when I had seriously to consider my position. I had scarcely any money left. Though living practically at free quarters, still there were some outgoings, and I must decide. Then, too, there was the home question, and the conviction that the scheme had failed. The alternative was plain - return to the Navy and take my chance, or burn my boats behind and remain.

I spent days and nights in hopeless indecision, but one day something occurred which showed me it would be

313

314

DISILLUSION

impossible for me to stay any longer at Ravensworth, where life had literally become intolerable.

So - that very night - I packed up my few goods and chattels : which done, I went down into the paddock to say goodbye to my dear, old Badger, trusting that he would recognise my form in the dark. For I would not call him for fear of disturbing the hands and bringing them out. I put my arms round old Badger and my face on his neck : I was longing for sympathy from something, which I verily believe the noble creature understood, for when I left him he followed me across the paddock, laying his head on my shoulder after I had climbed the rails, and had turned to give him a last pat.

Getting back to the silent house I sat down on the verandah ; I would not lie down for fear of sleeping too long into next day. Below me the widespread bush seemed to slumber, overhead shone the everlasting stars : almost at my feet a mound of earth, with rank vegetation growing over it, covered a dead nigger, whose shade was supposed to haunt the neglected garden. I wondered if I was any better off than him : envying him that he was beyond the necessity of forming a decision. With early dawn I went and found the storekeeper and asked him what I owed him for some trifling little things, such as boxes of matches, a stirrup leather, &c., all of which I paid. I then sent him to ask the overseer if I might have a tumble-down buggy, with which we used to intercept the mail-cart on its way to Singleton, which favour, for a wonder, he granted, doubtless as thankful to be rid of me as I was to leave him. I carried out my traps and put them into the buggy, leaving nothing behind me but a large pile of burnt letters and a note of goodbye to Greenwood.

I looked round for the last time, and could scarcely credit that it was the same spot where, some years before,

315

THE CONVERGING COACHES

I had been so happy and light-hearted. All my dreams had vanished, and nothing but sordid brutality seemed to brood over the place. I literally shook its dust off my feet as I climbed into the buggy beside my luggage, for on no spot of earth - and in none since - had I been so unhappy.

Arrived at the point where the coach passed, I stood on the road waiting for it, with a feeling of dejection it is difficult to imagine. My funds were rapidly running out, as I said before, and I had barely enough money to reach Sydney and pay my passage home, if I decided to return to England. But why go back ? What had I done to alter things at home ? Should I not return ten times worse than I had started ? For then, at least, I only owed my long-suffering tailor some �20 or �30, and had not another debt in the world. But if I returned, what was I to say in Paris ? I should be obliged to go to sea again immediately, and there eke out of my Lieutenant's pay of �180 a year the means to pay off my loan. I was in a painful state of vacillation through the complication of affairs at home, and at last resolved to leave it to fate. On the road where I stood was a small bush grog-shop, and the coaches pulled up here to refresh the ever-thirsty bush traveller. At this spot the up-country and down-country coaches met, and I resolved that I would get into which ever came in first, leaving it to destiny to settle. Looking down the long, straight track over which the up-country coach must come, I saw a cloud of dust, and well can I remember the curious sensation I had that I was about to turn my back on England - and Paris - perhaps for ever. But in the other direction a belt of scrub hid the view, the road making a sharp turn. And then, almost simultaneously, I heard a loud crack of a whip and round this corner, at full gallop, came the down coach, pulling up at the shanty not three minutes before the other. I felt like a man reprieved, for my heart was really set on

316

SYDNEY

going home, and I jumped up into the down coach with a great sense of relief.

A bush coach was a queer kind of thing, more resembling a box on wheels than anything else, and almost always driven at a gallop. It required considerable skill to retain one's seat as it bounded in and out of large holes axle-deep with dust in dry weather, quagmires in wet, whilst the jolting nearly shook one's teeth out. This violent exercise and the good natured chaff of a fat Roman priest, who shared my wooden seat, and whose knees were continually prodding into the back of an Irish maid servant who sat in front of him, did me a world of good. Before long I had shaken off that accursed feeling which had haunted me almost up to then, a feeling of blind hatred for everything and everybody at Ravensworth, and my depression of spirits gave way to something almost approaching to jollity. Hope dawned again, for hitherto it has never deserted me in anything, and I pray God it never may. Without it, what is life or what is there beyond ? To the man who loses hope there are only two things left - a keeper or a coffin.

* * * * *

On reaching Sydney I looked about immediately for a homeward-bound ship, trying to find a berth on board any kind of craft to work my passage home, but unsuccessfully. I was handicapped by my short sight, and, as I could not walk a yard without my eyeglass, of course no one would have me for a deck hand. So, seeing there was no alternative but to pay my passage home, I went to Melbourne and took a passage in the Wellesley, one of Green & Wigram's ships, a comfortable, frigate-built liner, and commanded by another Smith, who, like my friend of the steamer Otago, was an excellent seaman. I was too late to secure a cabin to myself, and found I was paired off with a lumbering, greasy German Jew, who I

317

THE GOOD SHIP WELLESLEY

hated the moment I cast eyes on him : a man of six feet, with shoulders like a soda-water bottle and a face too red and white for a decent person, his eyes leering and cunning. Amongst Jews, perhaps, he was considered a handsome man, to me he was simply revolting, and, knowing the type, I shuddered to think I should be cooped up with him in a small cabin for a hundred or a hundred and twenty days. I discovered, too, that he had provided himself with nothing in the shape of bed linen, towels, soap, sponge, or any other requisite for the journey - things not supplied by the shipowners in those days - and this presented to my mind a real peril. For the idea of this frowsy Israelite using mine filled me with disgust : and I foresaw trouble.

The Wellesley was a fine sea boat, as I quickly saw, for on clearing the Heads of Port Philip we at once tumbled into a heavy sea in Bass's Straits, with a strong westerly gale astern, which sent us bowling along thirteen knots an hour, shaping our course to pass to the southward of New Zealand on the great circle for Cape Horn. As most of the passengers were dead sick, including my Jew, who lay in his berth with a pea-green face, I saw little of them for two or three days. But I found Captain Smith an agreeable companion, and we rapidly became friendly. In a few days, as the passengers began to crawl about again, I saw that we were not likely to be dull for want of amusement of the ship-board order, for freedom was markedly present in their manners. Almost at a bound they sorted themselves out into couples for flirtation, the germs breaking up like cells and infecting every one. Amongst them were persons of every kind - except gentry - successful and impoverished squatters, diggers, widows, spinsters, bagmen, retired tradesmen, a bar-saloon keeper, a dentist and his two daughters, and a doctor, who was working his passage home as surgeon of the ship. We all

318

THE SOUTH PACIFIC

got on capitally together and - before we were many days out - knew everything about each other ; and what we did not know we invented, which did just as well. Almost everybody had a nickname, and all alike were given to a good deal of practical joking, as people of that class often are : always more merry and hearty than their betters, and thinking much less of taking offence. My Jew, however, was of a morose and sullen disposition, and to me personally became an insufferable nuisance. His habits in our cabin were disgusting, and we were continually at variance about having the port open, he dreading cold, I dreading suffocation. Furthermore, I soon knew that he was making free use of my soap and towels, and I used to shiver when I thought what liberty he might take with my sponge, so that every morning, after I had used it, I hung it up in the mizzen rigging, where it remained, safe beyond the clutches of the Israelite, until I went to bed. At this he took umbrage and we had a row, he swearing he had never touched my sponge, I protesting with equal force that some one had altered the position in which I had left it in the cabin. He then invented a method of annoying me by locking himself into our cabin at hours when he knew I wanted to come in, such as just before dinner, and keeping me waiting outside until he chose to open. At last I could stand it no longer, so, one evening when he had tried it on again and I had knocked in vain - lifting the Venetians of the door I obtained a view of him, standing there doing absolutely nothing. I could not stand this, but rattled vehemently and applied some epithet to him, which was not very complimentary.

"What !" he bawled out from the inside. "Insult me like that ! This is too mosh. I will break the bones of your body ! "

And he unbolted the door and made a rush at me. But I caught him in the left eye, my signet-ring laying

319

A FRACAS WITH A JEW

his cheek open, and before he could recover I had hit him about the head half a dozen times, when he fell down and rolled on the deck, where a female passenger, with whom he had made friends, threw herself on his body, seized him in her arms, and began screaming "Murder!" But the Jew was not to be detained, and, breaking violently away from his protectress, who he left sprawling under the saloon table, sped on deck to lay his complaint before the captain. I followed him immediately, and there was a scene : the Jew insisting on the captain confining me to my cabin for assault and battery on the high seas. But I gave Captain Smith my version of the story, pointing out that my enemy had used threats, and that I really only acted in self-defence, and, as I further gave the skipper my word that I would not attempt to evade any legal consequences of the fracas if the Jew, on arriving in England, chose to proceed against me, he said he would just leave the matter where it was. And certainly I scored in this affair, for, being persuaded I was in the right, the skipper ordered that the Jew should be transferred to an empty berth in the doctor's cabin, to my unspeakable relief and to the disgust of the Pill. I never heard anything more of the affair, but feel sure that the German thought I was harbouring a determination to thrash him immediately we landed in England, for when we got into the Channel - many weeks after - he hurriedly disembarked in the pilot's boat, accompanied in his flight by his lady friend aforesaid.

This friend of his was an astonishing female, extremely pious, who, before we had been many days out, had organised a Bible-class with prayer-meetings. Needless to say it was short-lived, for not only did the moral atmosphere of the saloon fail to support it, but the foundations on which it rested were rather insecure. For it

320

PACIFIC AND ATLANTIC

was held in the large and airy cabin of another widow, a buxom person of forty, or thereabouts, with a daughter equally buxom and a string of younger children. This person had been a widow for six months, and though she came on board showing all due resignation to the Providence which had removed her husband - a bullying ruffian, according to the children - yet she rapidly developed an aptitude for misconduct and a capacity for drink that was rare even amongst our select selves. In the most barefaced manner she proclaimed herself to be engaged, a few days after leaving Melbourne, to one of the roughest and most rowdy of the second-class passengers - a quondam stockman on her husband's station - who spent hours in the cabin she occupied in common with her daughter, the children being in another.

So, under these circumstances, the Bible-class made little progress, and, one after the other, backsliders were numbered amongst the elect until the pious foundress had to give it up in despair, and had to content herself with isolated religious assaults - generally conducted after nightfall - on solitary individuals. Failing, however, to make much headway, and rapidly desiring to do good to some one, she conceived the bold idea of tackling the German Jew and bringing him to Christianity. But, as by this time we were off the Falkland Islands, in bitter weather, and she had fallen a victim to sciatica, brought on by night mission work, she was compelled to carry on his conversion in her own cabin. There was no stewardess on board, and sciatica is a tiresome thing from which to suffer : so the amiable Israelite was installed as her personal attendant, producing ribald caricature, under the title of "Old Sanctimony suffering from Sciatica," whilst the buxom widow, who had been publicly rebuked by this sufferer for her levity in the matter of the stockman, wrote a tract which she called, "How Sciatica

321

A VANISHED ATLANTIS

converted the Jew." Altogether, if we were not well-behaved on board, at least we were not dull, and always had matter for conversation notably as to the widow's daughter, whose flirtations were simply kaleidoscopic.

* * * * *

With our arrival in England terminated another cycle in my life, for letters, which went nigh to breaking my heart, awaited me, and I found myself once more in Dieppe, a sadder and much wiser man. En révanche I had learnt a good deal, and had certainly had an interesting experience. But my Tom Tiddler's ground had vanished as completely as Atlantis : so I went to my kinsman at the Admiralty, Jem Gambier Noel, and got appointed to a ship in the Channel Fleet.

THE CHANNEL FLEET.

My next ship was the Defence, then thought a marvel of naval architecture, and one of the first of the ironclads. She is now a coal-hulk. I succeeded Sir Francis Blackwood, and took over his cabin, a spacious apartment in comparison with the small dark cabins of the old wooden vessels. Our Captain was a man who had never kept a Watch, having been promoted from Flag-Lieutenant to Commander without having done a stroke of work that could not have been equally well done by any butler. He had two ideas : his own vast importance and the necessity to make our lives miserable by curtailing every privilege - especially that of wearing plain clothes. He had not the faintest look, or the feeblest instinct of a sailor about him : with a mottled face and red-rimmed eyes, whilst his nostrils were permanently extended by a supercilious sniff.

Our Admiral was, more or less, a jovial soul - but that was about all - with a rolling, sea-faring gait, which,

322

THE COASTS OF GREAT BRITAIN

however, imposed on no one afloat. He was what Bismarck said of Lord Salisbury, "A lath-and-plaster man painted to look like iron." But as a British Admiral he looked every inch his part; a studio Admiral - for the Royal Academy - a man of blood and thunder, to be painted standing on the bridge of a ship going into action with masses of smoke around him, his telescope under his arm, death flashing from his eye, his mouth set and stern. The effect this Admiral produced at the various civic feasts to which we were invited in our progress round the coasts of Great Britain was nothing short of tremendous, infusing a spirit of heroism into the most timorous of aldermen or the least combative of tradesmen. For not only could he look terrible, but he could talk war until men felt they were listening to the boom of distant guns, and could see the flags of England's enemies fluttering down to their poop-rail. As the country had reached the danger-point - by going through one of its periodic phases of truckling to some Foreign Power to such an extent that the nation had begun to disbelieve in the existence of the Navy - this kind of thing was of immense value to the party in power. I forget which, nor does it matter, as they are both tarred with the same brush. As we cruised round seaports people began to pluck up a bit, for here, straight before them, was this superb modern fleet of ironclads, commanded by the most gallant old sea-dog and fighter since Nelson. Heroic hogwash flowed like water - the Admiral requesting his countrymen - like another old blether before him - to sharpen their cutlasses : he undertaking to do the rest. I do not remember, however, that we of the Fleet expressed any burning desire to be led to battle by this warrior ; indeed we all felt he was much more in his element at a civic feast.

During her commission the Defence had many officers

323

I TRY TO CATCH STEPHENS

who rose to distinction, Sir Arthur Wilson, Lord Charles Beresford, Admiral Kane (of Calliope fame), Admiral Johnstone, and last, but not least, Lovett Cameron, who did what Stanley never succeeded in doing : pass from shore to shore of the great African Continent, peacefully, truthfully, and unobtrusively with only a walking-stick in his hand and without a stain of blood on it. But, of course, comparison between a British officer doing his duty and a "Special" of the New York Herald is absurd. The Admiralty expect a quiet relation of facts : an American newspaper must be fed with blood, bunkum, and lies.

Channel Fleet work, as a rule, is unproductive of much incident, consisting chiefly of much signalling, and fleet manoeuvring in fogs and bad weather, alternated with balls, picnics, and garden-parties in port. Thanks, however, to the Fenian scare, the Defence was detached from the Fleet and sent to Lough Swilly, in the north of Ireland, where we remained several weeks, but what to do no one knew. As regards myself, however, I attempted in a mild way to contribute towards history by endeavouring to capture Stephens, the Head Centre of the Fenians, who - having escaped from gaol in England - was supposed to be in hiding somewhere north of Londonderry. I heard from a humble source that he was at a little mountain place not far from Moville, a watering-place on Loch Foyle, and, after considerable objection on the part of our Skipper, who seemed to think it an extremely hazardous and foolish thing to attempt, I managed to get forty-eight hours' leave to try my hand at the game which all manner of others were also playing, urged by a reward of �500 offered for the apprehension of the Head Centre. Unfortunately it was several hours before I could get ashore, for the ship lay some considerable distance off ; it was

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IRELAND

blowing hard and it was night, all of which made procuring a boat difficult. At last, however, Saumarez, our Commander, consented to give me one, and quite late - ten o'clock, it must have been - I found myself on the landing-place, endeavouring to get a jaunting-car to drive to Londonderry. But the little hotel, where we usually hired, had no trap in, and I was directed to a cottage some way out of the village, occupied by a man who was reported to "kape a good baste." Thither I went and knocked and thumped at the door, but could get no response. I thumped again, the only answer a grunt from a pig inside and a horse in a tumble-down shed rattling his chain. I walked round the cottage ; not a sign of life ; so I waited a few minutes and then banged harder than ever. At last, above the squeaks of the pig, I heard - voices two or three people wrangling in an unknown gibberish - a light was lighted, and finally a window opened, and a head was thrust out which I could not distinguish beyond that it looked young : with red hair. I hurriedly explained that I had been directed to this house by the hotel-keeper, and that I wanted to be driven to Londonderry. The woman made no answer, drew in her head, shut the window, and out went the light inside. This was not encouraging, but I was determined not to be put off so easily, so I banged vigorously once more, when, after renewed altercation inside, I saw the light come again under the doorsill, the door opened slowly, and a man, in trousers and shirt, peep out. His survey seemed to satisfy him, for he then threw it wide open, and behind him stood two women, in night garb, with shawls thrown over their heads. I did not dare tell the man my reason for wishing to go to Londonderry at that hour of night, for I knew he would certainly refuse to be even remotely implicated in this affair. As it was there was suspicion on his

325

AN IRISH SHANTY

face, with its small boarish eyes, whilst his apology for a nose seemed to sniff danger. For caution was necessary in those days, and men carried their lives in their hands, fearing the vengeance of the "Brotherhood."

" Is it dthrivin' to 'Derry, and at this toime o' night, you're afther?" he said in a surly voice, when I explained what I wanted. " Bedad, it's not me'll bring you."

And a lot more of this kind of jargon, amusing when you are in no hurry, but exasperating when you are. I offered about three times the ordinary fare, and after a deal of consultation with his women, and of haggling for two and sixpence more, we came to terms.

"Come inside. Be aisy, your honor," said the elder woman, and in I went.

The room was about ten feet square : a single bunk stretched across one side : at the other end a mattress, with a pile of grey blankets, lay on the floor : a low door led into the pigstye, and a hen or two roosted by the chimney. The daughter again retired to rest on the bed on the floor, her wonderful hair spread over a dress rolled up as a pillow, whilst the mother, nimbly enough, climbed up into the bunk. Then the man, hastily arraying himself in thick under-woollen things, sallied forth to harness "Ould Tom," an animal whose name had been repeated over and over again in the unintelligible jargon the three talked, leading me at first to suppose it was that of some man who was to drive me. Meanwhile the daughter, from the seclusion of her lowly bed, cross-examined me in every conceivable way. She knew me well enough by sight.

"Wasn't I the gintlemin that bought the blacksmith's colt at Rathmullan ; and always had to get on his back inside the stables as no one could mount him onc't out?"

I pleaded guilty to this folly. But beyond answers of

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IRELAND

yes or no, she got little out of me, for I knew how unwise it was to give any one the least clue as to what one might be doing in connection with the Fenian Conspiracy.

At last the car was ready, and in a minute after I found myself clinging on tooth and nail to the side of as ramshackle a vehicle as ever ran on wheels, behind a wiry old horse going like the wind, the driver, crouched like a monkey on the front seat, urging him with voice and whip.

Arrived in Londonderry, I went straight to the Superintendent of Constabulary, but here long delay occurred and a vast amount of official dunder-headedness, this officer insisting on knowing where I had obtained my information. But I resolutely declined to say, having given my word that I would on no account divulge it. I lost an hour through this tiresome fooling and only succeeded in getting a constable sent with me with great difficulty. It would have been madness to go alone, for I knew nothing of the country and should have not only run a fair chance of being shot, but could not have trusted any car driver with the secret of my expedition. Finally, however, I found myself once more in a car, en route for Moville, accompanied by a sergeant of the Constabulary in plain clothes, and, as dawn broke, we saw Moville, a glimmer of white houses on the dark waters of the loch. We had driven twenty-five miles and had only stopped once - at Mull - where the Constabulary were watching every exit from Ireland. Of course we were not detained : but I saw then how useless it would have been to have attempted to go alone for I should certainly have been delayed, under some pretext, until the Constabulary could have gone ahead to try and secure the reward of .�500 for themselves. However, to make a long story short, the whole affair failed, the boat which was to embark Stephens had

327

OLD IRISH HOSPITALITY

left Moville Bay a few hours before we got there, had picked him up on the coast, and - as we eventually learnt - landed him safely in France. I believe official connivance was at the bottom of it : the Government did not want him caught.

So I had my midnight jaunt for nothing and, returning to my ship, I next day hunted up my informant, who was infinitely relieved to hear I had failed, and with good reason, for the Inspector of Constabulary at Letterkenny told me that I was already marked for mixing myself up in this affair.

We had a very good time during our stay in the north of Ireland with much hunting and shooting, thanks to the never-failing hospitality of the Irish gentry, who, in those parts, still retained the typical mode of life which we associate with the idea of their class and country, people who got the utmost out of small incomes, a man with six hundred a year keeping three hunters and a pack of harriers; eating and drinking of the best, content to keep the wind out of his house by pasting paper over broken windows, or by stuffing straw under his hall door. There was a cordiality and simplicity about all these people that I have found nowhere else on the face of the earth : not alone amongst the gentry but amongst the peasants and small farmers.

As an instance of their ingenuous simplicity I may mention that I went to the wedding of a farmer's daughter where I had often been to shoot: the girl as lively as a fawn. The festivities were carried on until late, with much dancing and more whisky. Every one danced with the bride except the bridegroom, who, like many bridegrooms, seemed of no account in the show, and sat peaceably sipping whisky, with a broad smile of complacency on his face, as though conscious that, after all, the wedding could not have come off without him.

328

COUNTY DONEGAL

The night wore on : twelve, one, still on went the dancing, no one more eager or excited over it than the bride, determined apparently to have one good fling before settling down with her round-faced, loutish husband. But by this time the guests had begun to thin off, and I was on the point of leaving when the bride, with a cloak on, joined me at the door. It was rather a dark night, a great moor stretched before us, the setting moon making a streak of light on the waters of the loch below. An empty car was standing at a small side gate, and I said, without any idea of my proposal being accepted--

"Let's go for a drive, Kathleen, it is such a jolly night?"

But she took me at my word.

"Bedad, we shall! I'm just spoiling for a lark," she answered.

And before I knew what she was doing she was out of the gate and seated in the car where she waved her hand for me to follow.

Ever ready for fun, I obeyed her signal, and in another minute was rattling the horse along the moor road, with the bride, wrapped up in her cloak with the hood over her head, on the other side of the car. We flew along without any very fixed idea of where we were going, but laughing so much we could scarcely retain our seats. We crossed the top of the moor and down through a dark wood, bumped through a stream and up over another moor, turning and twisting about until we reached an old tumble-down shanty neither she nor I had ever seen before.

" Where are we? " I asked, beginning to think we had better turn back.

"I'm sure I don't know," said she.

" We had better get back," I said. " Your husband will be frantic, wondering where you are."

329

END OF AN ESCAPADE

" Faith, not he," she said, laughing. " I left him sound asleep, snoring on father's bed. He won't wake for many an hour."

She turned out to be right : he slept, dead drunk, until next day at noon. So we turned the horse's head towards home, but wandered about until we found ourselves in a big bog and realised that we were hopelessly lost.

She was not the least put out by the situation, and said it was folly to attempt to find our way in the dark. So we got down and sat with our backs against the shed, where she tried to keep awake, but getting drowsy at last went off fast asleep. I put the rugs over her and walked about, to keep myself warm. It began to be daylight before we got home : her mother and a milkmaid just coming in from milking. But nothing was said of our escapade, either by father or mother, whilst the bride-groom, when he awoke, seemed to see the joke better than any one else,

I must pass over the rest of my time in the Channel Fleet, though many things occurred that are now curious history, but space forbids. We paid off in Plymouth in the spring of 1866, and I went down to Shoeburyness, near Southend, to stay for a while with my brother George, the gunner, who had just had a most miraculous escape from the bursting of a large gun, when several men, standing close to him, had been blown to atoms. Southend was then in its infancy and a highly-diverting place. It was chiefly frequented by an East London shop-keeping community, and certainly whatever else these good people did, they came there to amuse themselves and incidentally to amuse us. Their al fresco bathing habits reminded me of the islands of the South Pacific, except that there was no sheltering fringe of forest growing close down to the water into which they could retire.

330

LONDON

After this I had a spell of a London season and for the first time met Mr. Gladstone, at my cousin, Lord Houghton's. Like every one else who ever came in contact with him, Mr. Gladstone impressed me powerfully by the magnetic attraction of his personality. And yet I can distinctly remember having a certain mistrust of him. He and Lord Houghton were talking over political events, and amongst others the Schleswig-Holstein Question, then prominent, came up. It was absolutely impossible to say whether Mr. Gladstone took the Danish or German side of the matter, and yet one came away with the idea that he had been propounding views of the highest statesmanship. He talked to me about the Navy, but two things struck me ; first, that it interested him very little, and secondly, that he could not have known less about it even if he had been First Lord of the Admiralty. It seemed a new conception to him, the naval point of view that there was only one Flag beyond the confines of Europe, namely, the British : as it was in those days. He struck me as more interested in some pettifogging parliamentary ruse to catch votes than in all India or Australia. But I had no experience of politics in those days, or I should not have been surprised; and not the remotest conception of the venom of party.

I went about a good deal amongst political personages, but my abiding impression was that the world was governed by very little wisdom, and, that to stuff some noodle into an Under-Secretaryship, there to qualify for the Cabinet, was of more importance in the eyes of our rulers than the loss of Canada or the Russian advance in Central Asia. Venality, in one form or another, was rife in all public offices, nepotism a disease. A well-known man in the Navy, of a great family, who commanded a line-of-battle ship at Spithead, could only go ashore on

331

BIRTH OF THE MODERN NAVY

Sunday for fear of the bailiffs. He was made a Lord of the Admiralty, and in two years - having paid off his debts - bought a nice estate in Hampshire.

I cannot state this as a fact, but hundreds of men must be alive who cannot contradict it.

As to the Admiralty it was parlous ; a kind of ham-and-beef shop, with the Duke of Somerset, who admittedly knew nothing about the Service, sandwiched in between two slices of Sir John Pakington, who thought he knew everything. These patriots had been preceded by a dreary, drivelling administration under Sir Charles Wood (Lord Halifax), under whom the Navy reached its lowest ebb since Queen Elizabeth.

Meanwhile, in spite of the Admiralty, the Navy was, however, steadily improving itself. A new spirit had arisen amongst naval men, and, with the new ships - which the Admiralty were reluctantly compelled to build - the modern Navy, the wonder of the world, was coming into existence. However interesting as is this subject, I have here no opportunity to describe it, and must pass on to such matters as lie more legitimately in the scope of an autobiography.

Moreover, the mob-elected marionettes can only dance to the tune set by the gallery.

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