e
and thought like heroes one hour, the next spoke what they did not
think, and made me think what I did not speak. No one got drunk except
the purser, who is always a privileged person; yet they were not the
same men as when they began their carouse, nor I the same boy when they
had finished it. On that evening I made a resolution never to touch
ardent spirits, and whilst I was in the navy, that resolution I adhered
to. It is a fact; I am known to too many, to make, on this subject, a
solemn assertion falsely. I did not lay the same restriction on wine;
yet, even that I always avoided, when I could do so without the
appearance of affectation. My reason, such as it was, never in the
slightest degree tottered on her throne, either with a weakness or a
strength not her own. The wine-cup never gladdened or sorrowed me.
Even when the tepid, fetid, and animalised water was served out to us in
quantities so minute, that our throats could count it by drops, I never
sought to qualify its nauseous taste, or increase its quantity, by the
addition of spirits, when spirits were more plentiful than the
much-courted water. This trait proves, if it proves nothing else, that
I had a good deal of that inflexibility of character, which we call in
others obstinacy, when we don't like it, firmness, when we do--in
ourselves, always, decision.

I give the incident that I am about to relate, to show in what way,
five-and-twenty years ago, a man-of-war was made the alternative of a
jail; and to prove, generally speaking, of what little use this kind of
recruiting was to the service; and, as it made a great impression on me
at the time, though a little episodical, I shall not hesitate to place
it before my readers.

After remaining at anchor in the Downs during the night, we sailed next
morning down the channel without stopping at Spithead, our ultimate
destination being still a profound secret. As we proceeded, when we
were off a part of the coast, the name of which I do not remember, about
noonday it fell calm, and the tide being against us, we neared the shore
a little, and came to an anchor. We had not remained long in our berth
before we descried a shore-boat pulling off to us, which shortly came
alongside, with a very singular cargo of animals, belonging to the genus
_homo_. In the stern-sheets sat a magistrate's clerk, swelling with
importance. On the after-thwart, and facing the Jack in office, were
placed two constables, b