barbarians.' They could bear Free Trade which was fair all round, but
not Free Trade which was made into a mockery by bounties. And it seemed
that their masters in Downing Street answered them as the Romans
answered our forefathers. 'We have many colonies, and we shall not miss
Britain. Britain is far off, and must take care of herself. She brings
us responsibility, and she brings us no revenue; we cannot tax Italy for
the sake of Britons. We have given them our arms and our civilisation.
We have done enough. Let them do now what they can or please.' Virtually
this is what England says to the West Indians, or would say if despair
made them actively troublesome, notwithstanding Exhibitions and
expansive sentiments. The answer from Rome we can now see was the voice
of dying greatness, which was no longer worthy of the place in the world
which it had made for itself in the days of its strength; but it
doubtless seemed reasonable enough at the time, and indeed was the only
answer which the Rome of Honorius could give.

A change in the weather cut short our conversations, and drove half the
company to their berths. On the fourth morning the wind chopped back to
the north-west. A beam sea set in, and the 'Moselle' justified my
conjectures about her. She rolled gunwale under, rolled at least forty
degrees each way, and unshipped a boat out of her davits to windward.
The waves were not as high as I have known the Atlantic produce when in
the humour for it, but they were short, steep, and curling. Tons of
water poured over the deck. The few of us who ventured below to dinner
were hit by the dumb waiters which swung over our heads; and the living
waiters staggered about with the dishes and upset the soup into our
laps. Everybody was grumbling and miserable. Driven to my cabin I was
dozing on a sofa when I was jerked off and dropped upon the floor. The
noise down below on these occasions is considerable. The steering chains
clank, unfastened doors slam to and fro, plates and dishes and glass
fall crashing at some lurch which is heavier than usual, with the roar
of the sea underneath as a constant accompaniment.

When a wave strikes the ship full on the quarter and she staggers from
stem to stern, one wonders how any construction of wood and iron can
endure such blows without being shattered to fragments. And it would be
shattered, as I heard an engineer once say, if the sea was not such a
gentle creature after all. I crept up to