was in hopes that Mr Bryan would himself
have been promoted, but he was not. Mr Fitzgerald, however, very
shortly afterwards received his commission as a commander. Bobus
declared that it was because he had stood on his head before the King
and made him laugh, or because he had amused some other great person by
one of his wonderful stories. I met him one day, and congratulated him.

"Ah, merit, merit does everything, Mr Merry, next to zeal," he
exclaimed, with a chuckle.

"You always were a zealous officer; and now I think of it, you are the
very midshipman who took off his trousers and blew into them, when no
other sail or wind was to be had for love or money, and the captain was
in a hurry to get your boat back. I've often told the story since of
you, and set it all down to your zeal."

"Well, let this be your consolation, if others do not recognise your
services, I will when I am one of the Lords of the Admiralty."

"Well, sir," said I, "I hope that you will make haste to climb up into
that honourable position, or the war will be over, and I shall not have
secured my commission." I did not think that it would be polite to have
replied, I thank you for nothing, but certainly I did not expect ever to
benefit much by his patronage.

To return to the paying-off dinner. I wish that I could say that all
present retired quietly to their respective inns and lodgings as sober
as judges; but, with the exception of Grey and me, I believe that not
one could have managed to toe a plank, had they been suddenly ordered to
make the attempt. I speak of things as they were in those days, not as
they are now. Happily at the present day it is considered highly
disgraceful for an officer to be drunk; and not only is it disgraceful,
but subversive of discipline, whether he is on or off duty, and thus
injurious to the interests of the service, and prejudicial to his own
health and morals. Taking the matter up only in a personal point of
view, how can a man tell how he will behave when he has allowed liquor
to steal away his wits? what mischief he may do himself, what injury he
may inflict on others? In the course of my career I have seen hundreds
of young men ruined in health and prospects, and many, very many,
brought to a premature grave by this pernicious habit of drinking.

"But what is the harm of getting drunk once in a way?" I have heard
many a shipmate ask.

I say, a vast deal of harm. How can you tell what you w