daily bread of our political life; but who can doubt
that English politics would be lifted into a higher and altogether purer
region if men like Lord Carnock were at the head of things, to provide
for the spirit of man as well as for his stomach?

More and more, I think, gentlemen will stand aloof from politics--I
mean, gentlemen who have received in their blood and in their training
those notions of graciousness, sweetness, and nobleness which flow from
centuries of piety and learning. Only here and there will such a man
accept the odious conditions of our public life, inspired by a sense of
duty, and prepared to endure the intolerable ugliness and dishonesty of
politics for the sake of a cause which moves him with all the force of a
great affection. But on the whole it is probable that the political
fortunes of this great and beautiful country are committed for many
years to hands which are not merely over-rough for so precious a charge,
but not near clean enough for the sacredness of the English cause.

Only by indirect action, only by a much more faithful energy on the part
of Aristocracy and the Church, and a far nobler realization of its
responsibilities by the Press, can the ancient spirit of England make
itself felt in the sordid lists of Westminster. Till then he who crows
loudest will rule the roost.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Croker writes from Paris of a visit to St. Cloud, where he found
Bluecher and his staff in possession: "The great hall was a common
guard-house, in which the Prussians were drinking, spitting, smoking,
and sleeping in all directions." Denon complained greatly of the
Prussians and said he was "malheureux to have to do with a bete feroce,
un animal indecrottable, le Prince Bluecher."

LORD FISHER

BARON FISHER, ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET (JOHN ARBUTHNOT FISHER)

Born, 1841; entered Navy, 1854; took part in 1860 in the Capture of
Canton and the Peiho Forts; Crimean War, 1855; China War, 1859-60;
Egyptian War and Bombardment of Alexandria, 1882; Lord of the
Admiralty, 1892-97; Commander-in-Chief, North American Station,
1897-99; Mediterranean Station, 1899-02; Commander-in-Chief,
1903-1904; 1st Sea Lord, 1904-10; 1914-15; died, 1920.

[Illustration: BARON FISHER]

CHAPTER III

LORD FISHER

_"Look for a tough wedge for a tough log."_

PUBLIUS SYRUS.

No man I have met ever gave me so authentic a feeling of originality as
this dare-d