motive could be assigned to an act
which he felt to proceed from disinterested chivalry, just as he himself
broke out with his expression of an opinion that no officer had been
less liberally rewarded for his professional services than his friend.
While there is no greater mystery to a selfish manager, than a man of
disinterested temperament, they who feel and submit to generous
impulses, understand each other with an instinctive facility. When any
particular individual is prone to believe that there is a predominance
of good over evil in the world he inhabits, it is a sign of
inexperience, or of imbecility; but when one acts and reasons as if
_all_ honour and virtue are extinct, he furnishes the best possible
argument against his own tendencies and character. It has often been
remarked that stronger friendships are made between those who have
different personal peculiarities, than between those whose sameness of
feeling and impulses would be less likely to keep interest alive; but,
in all cases of intimacies, there must be great identity of principles,
and even of tastes in matters at all connected with motives, in order to
ensure respect, among those whose standard of opinion is higher than
common, or sympathy among those with whom it is lower. Such was the
fact, as respected Admirals Oakes and Bluewater. No two men could be
less alike in temperament, or character, physically, and in some senses,
morally considered; but, when it came to principles, or all those tastes
or feelings that are allied to principles, there was a strong native, as
well as acquired affinity. This union of sentiment was increased by
common habits, and professional careers so long and so closely united,
as to be almost identical. Nothing was easier, consequently, than for
Sir Gervaise Oakes to comprehend the workings of Admiral Bluewater's
mind, as the latter endeavoured to believe he had been fairly treated by
the existing government. Of course, the reasoning which passed through
the thoughts of Sir Gervaise, on this occasion, required much less time
than we have taken to explain its nature; and, after regarding his
friend intently, as already related, for a few seconds, he answered as
follows; a good deal influenced, unwittingly to himself, with the wish
to check the other's Jacobite propensities.

"I am sorry not to be able to agree with you, Dick," he said, with some
warmth. "So far from thinking you _well_ treated, by any ministry, these
tw