it had not been
for that gun, I believe King Rumfiz would have lost his kingdom. He was
very grateful to me, as, to do them justice, were all his subjects; and
I found that I was unanimously elected as the heir to the throne. My
honours did not make me proud, for I felt that I deserved them, and I
became, for some time, more popular than ever. A neighbouring island,
however, which had been for centuries attached to the dominions of King
Rumfiz, gave me much trouble, for though many of the inhabitants were
descended from his own people, they insisted on making themselves
independent (as they called it), and having a king of their own. They
were great cannibals, and used to eat each other up without ceremony,
and as for hissing, hooting, and swearing, few people could match them.
The name of the island was Blarney Botherum. When I first visited them,
I thought, from their own account, that they were a nation of heroes
kept in chains by King Rumfiz for his own especial pleasure and
amusement, and that if I could make them free they would set a bright
example to the rest of the world of intelligence, civilisation, and all
the virtues which adorn human nature. I soon, however, discovered that
the people of Blarney Botherum were the greatest humbugs under the sun.
They had got a set of people among them whom they called medicine men,
who told them that there was a big medicine man in a distant part of the
world, whom they were to obey instead of King Rumfiz, and that, provided
they told him the truth, and gave them cocoa-nuts and breadfruits, they
might tell as many lies as they liked to the king, and might rob and
cheat him as much as they pleased. Whenever, therefore, the little
medicine men wanted cocoa-nuts and bread-fruits, they used to tell the
people the big one required food, and their whole occupation was to
throw dust in the eyes of King Rumfiz (as the Turks say), so that he
might not find out their knavery."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

Mr Johnson leaned back in his seat, when, slowly stooping down for his
tumbler, he brought it deliberately to his mouth, and took a prolonged
sip. Then shaking his head, he observed, "Politics are awful things to
meddle with--the very thought of what I endured, turns my throat into a
dust-hole." Again he sipped, and again he shook his head. "Young
gentlemen," he said solemnly, "if ever any of you rise to the top of the
profession, and I hope you may--and should his Majesty, Ki