ff substance, which had all the "feel" of one of those dreaded
packages which had hitherto proved so often an obstacle, and which I had
already most bitterly anathematised.

I tried the slit in several places, and still touched what appeared to
be a bale of linen. At the end of the case I made trial also, but there
it was wood that resisted the point of my blade. It appeared to be
deal, and the same as the other boxes were made of; but even had it
proved to be timber of the hardest kind, it would be easier to cut a
hole through it than through a bale of linen.

This reason would have been of itself sufficient to have influenced me
to choose the horizontal direction; but there was still a third that
offered itself to my view.

This third reason will not be so easily understood by those who are
unacquainted with the interior of the hold of a ship, particularly such
ships as were built in the time of which I am speaking, which you will
remember was a great many years ago. In ships of the proper shape, such
as the Americans have taught us to build, the reason I am about to give
would not have any application.

But I shall enter into particulars, so that you may comprehend it; and,
at the same time, in this trifling digression from the thread of my
narrative, I hope, young friends, to teach you a lesson of political
wisdom that may benefit both you and your country when you are old
enough to practise it.

I hold the doctrine, or, I should rather say, I have long been aware of
the fact (for there is no "doctrine" about it), that the study which is
usually styled Political Science, is the most important study that ever
occupied the attention of men. It embraces and influences all other
existences in the social world. Every art, science, or manufacture
hinges upon this, and depends upon it for success or failure. Even
morality itself is but a corollary of the political state, and crime a
consequence of its bad organisation. The political _status_ of a
country is the _main_ cause of its happiness or its misery. In no case
has government reached anything approaching to justice; hence, there is
no people who ever has, as a whole, enjoyed ordinary happiness.
Poverty, misery, crime, degradation, are the lot of the _majority_ in
every land, except one, and in that one there is yet nothing near
perfection in government, only a step in advance.

As I have said, then, the _laws_ of a country--in other words, its
_politica