nough for me; I wants no Empress'? And didn't that
favourite Jew of yours say to him it was a grand speech? But I'm not
goin' to open my mouth to fill your empty heads. You don't know your
A B C's yet; and you talk to me about givin' away England, and about
Dizzy, and you haven't a good word to say about your own countrymen who
want to get you a bit of the land to grow something on. I tell you,
you're nothing better than nincompoops, hobbledehoys that knows no more
about politics than the old hookers you're skippers of do." He
emphasized these last remarks by bringing his fist heavily down on the
table, knocking the glasses off, and then in a patronizing way he
walked from them a short distance, turned round quickly as though a
sudden impulse had seized him, and shouted at the top of his voice:

"You want to go to school again, if you've ever been there, but I don't
think you have!"

A reticent man sat close by during the singular debate. An observer
could see that Captain Harvey's last oration was having a convincing
effect on him, and immediately Harvey had fired his last shot Captain
George Halligay rose, and with unaffected solemnity remarked:

"That man knows too much to be a shipmaster. He should be in the House
of Commons. The language he uses, and his knowledge of men and what
they say, is very clever. It would take a funny 'un to tackle him. They
tell me he's written to the papers sometimes."

"All wind and blather," said Captain John Bird, which remark was
endorsed by Captain Cowan and received with some applause.

"Not so," said Halligay. "He has great gifts." And then they made their
way to the landing where their boats waited to convey them to their
respective ships.

These were some of the last specimens of our old-time sailor manhood.
Rough, uncultured, careless of danger, their fighting instincts
sometimes leading them to ferocity; but withal they were strong in many
ways, and had intervals of docility which ofttimes made them lovable. I
dare say many, if not all, of their generation (for they were aged men
when I knew them) have passed beyond the reach of the political or
social student, and we shall nevermore hear the same kind of confusion
of thought that made the discussions of these aged mariners so
delightful to listen to. Of course many of the captains of that time
had real accomplishments far beyond the stolid men of whom I have been
speaking. But even the most cultured of that generation d