e to be the instigator and encourager of a shabby trick. It was a
wonderful phenomenon that made these men talk so systematically of
their magical enemy, and yet they never lost an opportunity of showing
their national dislike for and superiority over the French people as a
whole. So strong was this instinct that it permeated British crews from
the captain to the cabin-boy. Of course there were at times violent
differences of opinion, but as a rule the Emperor was singularly
popular, and the aversion to his former subjects, especially civilians,
was never disguised. They showed frequent hostility towards
coal-heavers, dockers, sailors, fishermen, and sundry other grades of
workmen with whom they came in contact, but that is not to say they
were always successful in their attacks, though they invariably took
the initiative. In the old days the average British tar could not solve
the mystery as to what foreigners, and especially Frenchmen, were made
for; even at the present time they put on a lordly air when they come
in contact with people whom they regard as aliens. This attitude is
adopted independent of all reason, and becomes quite infectious. I must
have caught it early in life. I went to a French port on my first
voyage to sea, and although I was a mere child of twelve and a half
years, I became smitten with the forecastle belief that my country and
countrymen had suffered irreparable mischief at the hands of the French
nation. I therefore deemed it my duty to be avenged, so picked out a
French youth apparently my senior by some years, reminded him of
Trafalgar and Waterloo, and called him by the opprobrious name of
Johnny Crapo, the meaning of which I did not understand. I was promptly
made to run for my life before a sudden Napoleonic onslaught of about
half-a-dozen small boys, who had congregated to see their friend
demolish the avowed foe of their country.

In discussing the many phases of Napoleon, the sailor was never
perplexed in coming to conclusions as to the right and wrong of his
(Napoleon's) actions. Their quotations and manner of using them were at
times amazingly tempestuous and erratic. Captain Maitland, of the
_Bellerophon_, was generally believed to have behaved with becoming
generosity towards the dethroned monarch, but the question as to
whether he gave himself up voluntarily and without reservation, or, as
Napoleon maintained, that he was prevailed upon to become the guest of
England, and put hi